Throughout the day, kids can accumulate a lot of dirt and grime on their little bodies. Whether they are starting a personal collection of dirt and grime from playing in the yard, art projects, an extracurricular activity like tee-ball or soccer, having to deal with getting a dirty kid clean is part of the job description for a parent.
Some kids can make it a real chore though. In order to make the process faster and more efficient, it might be prudent to employ some unorthodox and classic techniques to make sure they are properly clean. Below, there are five hygiene hacks to help keep your kid clean, healthy and smelling fresh.
Play the Big Bad Wolf at Bath Time for Younger Children
It is typical for young children, especially under the age of five, to despise spending their valuable playtime washing their hair, cleaning under their fingernails and spending more than a few seconds brushing their teeth.
Unless you want to be a drill sergeant about it and risk your child despising forming good hygiene habits, then playing a game like the Big Bad Wolf at bath time is a good way to keep your little boy or girl clean, smelling divine and instill solid hygiene habits.
Tell your little wolf they have to get their claws out to be polished, wash their fur to keep it shiny and scary and have them brush their big, sharp fangs. Finally, tell them to lean back and howl while you rinse them clean. Their fingernails will be dirt and bacteria free, teeth are brushed and all the soap and shampoo is rinsed away from their eyes and hair.
The Alphabet Song and Cleanliness
Hand washing is an important hygiene habit to suppress the chances of getting sick, passing germs and keeping hands smelling fresh and fingernails clean. It is also one of the harder habits to instill, especially for the duration needed for the practice to be productive.
One way to make sure children do it right is to start early, and you should wash your hands with them whether you need to or not. If you want to make sure your child is scrubbing their hands for the proper duration, then start singing the alphabet song with them early. When the song is over, the hand washing would have reached its proper finish.
Offer Incentives
It is important to note that these methods should only be done when your child is young in order to get them to form cleanliness habits. After they start kindergarten, rewards for something they should be doing for their own good needs to stop. Make hygiene habits part of a chore list, so when all chores are checked off for the end of the day and every day for a week, then your child can earn their allowance at the end of the week.
Using the Two Minute Teeth Brushing Timer
This particular hack is decades old, but it still does the trick. All you have to do to ensure your child thoroughly brushes his teeth is to have a timer ticking down two minutes. You must make sure they are brushing for the entire two minutes by doing spot checks and punishing cheaters. To a kid, two minutes is a long time, so they are going to brush every nook and cranny of their mouth out of sheer boredom.
This may not be tricking your children into thinking brushing is fun, but it is important for parents to remember they do not and should not have to trick their kids into doing something good for them. Also, according to the ADA, everyone, especially children should be brushing for a full two minutes. They'll also feel good when the dentist tells them how fantastic their teeth are.
Use the Pediatrician and Dentist
Have your child's pediatrician talk to them about good hygiene, the consequences of bad hygiene, and show them some photos and videos of what bad hygiene can lead to. The dentist should do the same and will probably be more effective, especially if they explain what happens when poor oral hygiene occurs.
Kids might find brushing their teeth one of the most boring and tedious habits, but everyone is afraid of their teeth getting drilled on, rotting, getting pulled or falling out. Also, dentists like fairmont dental care in your area can also explain how good hygiene can make procedures like Invisalign and other procedures proceed smoothly and without unnecessary complications if teeth are taken care of.
The chances of needing dentures or implants from a dentist will be dramatically decreased with good habits, which doctors will be happy to explain.
Those are five hygiene hacks to help you keep your child looking and smelling great. Also, do not forget that your child's good hygiene and clean appearance will reflect positively on you as well. Additionally, WebMD shows links between good hygiene and self-esteem in preteen and teenage years, and good cleanliness habits are forged at an early age.
By keeping your child clean and smelling good, you are doing their physical and mental health a tremendous favor too. Finally, you are setting a precedent for them to follow their entire lives and pass on to their own children.