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Brush your teeth with him & have a spitting "contest".
I know, it sounds ridiculous but you won't have to do it for very long. I actually had to do this with my son. He has Autism & sometimes the simplest of ADL's are a no-go.
Keep some paper towels handy for the mess & be dramatic about it. Be noisy & make him laugh!
Brush your teeth with him & have a spitting "contest".
I know, it sounds ridiculous but you won't have to do it for very long. I actually had to do this with my son. He has Autism & sometimes the simplest of ADL's are a no-go.
Keep some paper towels handy for the mess & be dramatic about it. Be noisy & make him laugh!
This is great.. I'm just wondering why I didnt think of all these simple ideas.. Thanks!
Quote:
cupper3] Do I dare say it? It's the old spit or swallow conundrum.
(Saw this pop up in the Active Treads box, and my mind is working in strange ways this morning. Take it as a joke. )
Hahahaha.. i did take it as a joke.. no worries.. age old conundrum albeit wasted on a 4 year old.. lol
The best way I found to get my 4 year old to stop doing something was to drop it. Quit bugging him about it. If he sees that his contrary behavior isn't garnering a reaction anymore, he loses all incentive to keep doing it.
Seriously - it worked on my son for a good couple of years.
ditto.
And it still works (mostly) on my 12 year old. The more I push, the more he pushes back. Sometimes I have to push but I don't have the energy to do it all the time so I pick the battles that are worth fighting. This would not be one of them.
We brush every morning and night and the kids understand this and sometimes, if i forget to brush / facilitate the night brushing, I get told off by them
The problem is that my 4 year old refuses to spit out the toothpaste, he just swallows it. I know its not that he's not capable as he spits out the water when he rinses his mouth at the end of the brushing. I just dont understand why he fights this.. We've tried both carrot (bribery) and stick (take away a minor treat) to which he cries so much and tells me that I'm being mean and "making his feelings sad". We still buy kids fluoride toothpaste and I wonder if he's just enjoying the sweet taste??? Few weeks ago, i tried adult toothpaste to try to make him spit it out since he said it was yucky.. he cried and just refused to open his mouth. I had to force him.. Now i think its just a battle of wills.. and I'm wondering if i should just ignore it.
Other kids were fully spitting out by 3 years old.. no extra motivation required...Dentist said its no biggie.. but its bugging me
So parents, any ideas on how to motivate a 4 year old to do this.no behavior issues elsewhere just this one point.... or just let it be?
that the toothpaste has acid in it, that after 5 minutes of brushing it will start to burn
Lol.. great to know that I'm not the only one with a contrary 4 year old....hahaha.. point of correction, we are using the kids fluoride toothpaste not the non-fluoride. Switched ~2.5y when the dentist told us to switch. I'm hoping we can even transition to just one type of toothpaste for everyone but even my 6 year olds say adult toothpaste is yucky😀 when did you switch to regular toothpaste for your older kids?
Never used kid's toothpaste, never needed to transition.
I luckily never had this problem. It is a feature of my child that they are a very "rules bound" kind of personality. I merely had to show them the "fluoride warnings" on the tube, and say it was POISON. It was OK to brush your teeth with it, but you HAD TO spit it, or it would give you a tummyache, and if you "ate the whole tube" of toothpaste like a Gogurt, it would probably kill you.
Did I use fear? I guess I did. But it was only 1.5 minutes of instruction and I never had to worry about it since.
Don't worry we're on to new problems: did you *really* use the shampoo and conditioner? Since I don't watch you shower, now that "you're big".
We brush every morning and night and the kids understand this and sometimes, if i forget to brush / facilitate the night brushing, I get told off by them
The problem is that my 4 year old refuses to spit out the toothpaste, he just swallows it. I know its not that he's not capable as he spits out the water when he rinses his mouth at the end of the brushing. I just dont understand why he fights this.. We've tried both carrot (bribery) and stick (take away a minor treat) to which he cries so much and tells me that I'm being mean and "making his feelings sad". We still buy kids fluoride toothpaste and I wonder if he's just enjoying the sweet taste??? Few weeks ago, i tried adult toothpaste to try to make him spit it out since he said it was yucky.. he cried and just refused to open his mouth. I had to force him.. Now i think its just a battle of wills.. and I'm wondering if i should just ignore it.
Other kids were fully spitting out by 3 years old.. no extra motivation required...Dentist said its no biggie.. but its bugging me
So parents, any ideas on how to motivate a 4 year old to do this.no behavior issues elsewhere just this one point.... or just let it be?
make it a game
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tell them
