When it was time to brush and floss that night, L was all for it. But my little one wasn't really on board with this. I didn't push her, I told her to let me know when she wanted me to floss her teeth. But I knew I had to come up with something. Later that night, Daddy said to me, she's 2 and if she doesn't want to do it, could we start it when she's 3 like L?? I see the point he's making, BUT we did just go to the dentist and they DID say we should. We had that talk, all of us together, and they were told that we should start doing this. I know L wouldn't understand why M wasn't doing it (or why she didn't have to) since we were told by the dentist that we should. I didn't want her to think that it was okay NOT TO DO IT!
The following day after we finished at soccer, we made another trip to Target. To get some stickers! I let them both pick them out. When we got home I started making 2 sticker charts. One with M's name and one with L's name. While I was making it I explained to her how it would work (of course M was right there hearing it all). She could choose a sticker in the morning after we flossed and at bedtime when we flossed and when the chart was full of stickers with no empty blocks, she could choose to either go to Chuck E. Cheese or Puzzles Fun Dome. After I finished, we went into the bathroom to hang the charts. L asked me why I had 2 and I replied, "One day M will be ready and she'll ask me to floss her teeth, when her chart is full, she can choose one of those two places to go as well." I never said anything to M about flossing her teeth.
That night I brushed and flossed L's teeth. L started brushing her teeth after I was finished and while I started brushing M's teeth. When I finished brushing M's teeth, she took my face into her hands pulled me close to her. We were nose to nose and she said, "Floss my teeth Mommy!" We celebrated, made a big deal and she's been flossing ever since!!
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