I don’t know about you, but when it comes to choosing my favorite parenting tasks, teeth brushing is not particularly high ranking on the list. Give me a wiggly toddler to dress…I’m game! Have me cut up fruit in a billion teeny, tiny pieces…done! But brushing my kids teeth always feels like such a chore.
The thing is, my kids LOVE to brush their teeth, but they don’t actually love doing it the right way. Two quick swipes of toothpaste across their pearly whites and they think they’re golden. Ummm…no.
And because I have a mouth full of metal myself and am hoping to avoid similar pain and suffering in the future for my children (…and let’s be real: my wallet. Dentist bills are NOT cheap!), I always have to get in there for round two. Round two of the teeth brushing process looks a lot like wrangling wild gators in the Florida everglades. Tears often ensue and it’s just not pleasant for anyone.
Enter the Philips Sonicare for Kids Power Toothbrush and the process just got a whole lot more fun.
For starters, the toothbrush itself comes with a ton of cool stickers to change up the look of your handle. So many fun, bright options!
I went ahead and put this little number on for Fern, because I thought she’d like it, but clearly she had her own plans. I have no idea why this surprises me, because #Threenager.
Peeling the sticker off was super easy and it’s sticky enough to reuse when she changes her mind about it (like in the next 15 minutes, because this is my life). She opted for a custom job with the fun stickers that sort of resemble temporary tattoos, which she is really into at the moment. The bonus about the sticker customization is that I was totally off-the-hook for any further craft projects that day, because stickers totally count as a craft in my world. Score!
After “arts-and-craft time”, we proceeded onto the actually brushing of teeth. We started by downloading the Philips Sonicare for Kids app, which just so happens to by my favorite part about this toothbrush. The Philips Sonicare for Kids has Bluetooth® wireless technology that allows you to connect your toothbrush to the app via your phone or tablet and it’s a super fun way to teach kids proper tooth brushing habits.
You can watch a video about how it works here, but basically it’s a game where your kid gets to adopt this little, fuzzy, purple creature (AKA “a sparkly”) and by brushing their teeth, they also brush their sparkly’s teeth. You even get to name it, so Fern named hers after her brother. It’s sort of like having one of those Giga Pets we all loved back in the 90’s, because after each toothbrushing session completed you earn food rewards or customization options for your sparkly. Fern was super into it and I liked that her sparkly gives brushing tutorials to help with technique, because let’s be real, she’s totally going to take instructions from a make-believe, purple, fluff ball way better than she would from me.
Finally came the actual brushing of teeth. Fern’s first response was, “This toothbrush is so tickly Mama!” She proceeded to brush her teeth for the full time limit and then let me do a quick once over since she’s still just learning, but even that was so much less drama than our usual process.
Fern thought the timer and the vibrations were “fun”, but they serve a much greater purpose beyond that for me as the mama. The timer means I no longer have to nag her about brushing for longer, because now she knows that she has to brush until the timer goes off. The vibrations mean that she is getting the cleaning action of 500 strokes per second, which has to be a whole heck of a lot better than the level of clean that was happening before.
Basically, we are big fans of this toothbrush, because it makes oral hygiene feel like a fun game instead of another chore and what’s not to love about that?
Go forth and brush those tiny teeth my friends! Or better yet…let a little purple, fluff ball teach your kids how to do it themselves…the right way!
xo
Lauren
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Philips Sonicare through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Philips Sonicare for Kids, all opinions are my own.
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