Trying to Think Outside of the Box

I‘ve been reminded a couple times lately that sometimes I need to think outside the box more. So this is just a brief blog post about a couple “issues” we’ve faced lately. First, a reluctance to brush teeth; second, balancing the desire to have long hair with a sensitive head.

Pokémon Smile

Joss knows that brushing his teeth is an important part of our bedtime routine. But sometimes at the end of the day, that’s the last thing he wants to do. After several days of reluctance – and me becoming increasingly frustrated – a friend recommended a Pokémon toothbrushing app.

Pokémon Smile encourages tooth brushing by rewarding good brushing with capturing Pokémon. The child holds the phone up to their face, and what they see on the screen is their image (wearing a digital Pokémon hat), plus an image of their chosen Pokémon hanging out inside of a mouth. You see the backside of the bottom row of teeth. There’s also a diagram of where to brush, which changes as you go along, and a countdown.

Just an example

As you brush, the app tells you to brush faster, offers encouragement, etc., and your chosen Pokémon buddy lobs attacks against germs. Each session, a germ-covered Pokémon also appears. As you continue brushing, your Pokémon buddy clears off the new Pokémon until it’s clean and you can see which Pokémon it is.

At the end of the countdown, you can capture the new Pokémon. The app also takes photos of your tooth brushing session, so you can choose your favorite and decorate it with various stickers you are earning as well.

It’s been less than a week, so I hesitate to celebrate too soon. However, Joss has brushed his teeth happily ever since we got this app.

For kids not into Pokémon, don’t worry, there are other toothbrushing apps available. Some with good ratings in the Apple App store include hum kids by Colgate; Disney Magic Timer; Philips Sonicare for Kids; and Mimizaur: Tooth Brushing Timer.

Hair Care

This is one we’re still working on, and maybe I’m overthinking it, who knows. But Joss has been wearing his hair long for the past year or so. It’s at the point where it’s a little harder to take care of and gets in his face a good amount. Which, most of the time isn’t too much of an issue, but it’s becoming a bit of a problem in tae kwon do class. The other half of the problem is that he has a very sensitive head and hates the feel of ponytails.

After a tense and frustrating morning in which we tried and failed to participate in tae kwon do, we drove home. I tried to calm down and finally realized that there should be other options than just ponytails. So I ordered some athletic headbands and hair clips, along with some hair ties in fun colors, just in case. All of which were pretty cheap.

So hopefully some of those items will work. I hate to force a haircut before he is ready. If anyone has some suggestions for how to keep hair out of their eyes when a kid has a sensitive scalp, please share them in the comments!

Here’s an article with some other suggestions, mainly geared toward kids who have a hard time with hair brushing: yourkidstable.com/sensory-issues-with-hair-brushing. One we may need to try at some point is a detangler.