Having a healthy mouth is crucial to overall well-being. Getting your kids excited about brushing their teeth is an important part of ensuring that your children take care of their little chompers even before there are teeth to speak of. Gently brushing their gums when they are 4 or 5 months or so helps babies become accustomed to the idea of you putting your hands near and in their mouth. We started using an all natural fluoride free gel (like the ones from Branam) at about age 6 months and had our first pediatric dentist visit at age 2 years.

Here are some tips that work in getting our kids excited about brushing their teeth:

1. We read lots of books about teeth, we love Dr. Seuss’ Tooth Book as well as Bear’s Loose Tooth, and Brush, Brush, Brush!
2. We let the children pick their toothbrush, so far the ones that stick to the counter are the winners.
3. We put the kids in charge, let them squeeze the toothpaste on the brush, fill the rinsing cup and start the brushing.
4. We play an I spy game that not only makes the kids open wide but helps them connect eating with the role their teeth play in the process. “I spy some carrot” “I spy some turkey”. The kids love predicting what we’ll find (practices memory recall) and love to peek inside each other’s mouth to “spy” more areas that need brushing
5. To clean the fronts of their teeth, we pretend the toothbrush is a train on their track of teeth.

We make sure to brush their teeth twice a day and often join in the process so they can see that this is part of all of our healthy routine.

For more tips on keeping your child healthy, visit Healthy Child, Healthy World and sign up for their newsletter. You can find them on twitter @healthy_child or on facebook.

I was not compensated for this post.