There are many things that add to the stress of getting out the door on time for parents of young kids, particularly on school days. Cleaning teeth is one of them.
My eldest daughter is 12 and more than capable of brushing her own teeth. But when your kids are younger, like our seven-year-old, the importance of brushing can be forgotten about when the clock is ticking, and you need to leave the house to get to school on time.
Being asked to brush their teeth can be another thing for young kids to try to avoid doing, particularly when they don’t understand why it needs to be done. Learning about why it’s so important can help to tackle that, especially if the learning is attached to a fun character or involves slightly gross things and toilet humour!
The characters in Open Wide…What’s Inside fits the bill for both of these things perfectly. The book is written by Alex Rushworth and illustrated brilliantly by Helen Rushworth. Alex is a dentist with almost 30 years of experience in practice, and then as a clinical trainer in paediatric dentistry.
Open Wide….What’s Inside
The rhyming story starts with looking at why we have teeth, and how bits of food can end up like the leftovers on our plates that get old and smelly if they’re not washed off. The Sugarbugs eat the leftovers, making them fat and stinky.
The Sugarbugs and their poo piqued our seven-year-old’s interest. She thought the bugs were hilarious, but didn’t like the thought of them doing stinky poos on teeth! She gets nervous about going to the dentist, but isn’t a big fan of brushing her teeth long enough to make sure they’re clean.
Reading the book with her has helped her understand a bit better why cleaning teeth is so important, and the impact not doing it properly can have on her teeth. She asks me to check whether I can see any Sugarbugs or their poo when she’s cleaned her teeth, and it definitely seems to have helped her make sure she cleans her teeth better and for longer.
The story has also prompted her to ask questions about food, leading to conversations that some foods have a lot of sugar in them and so aren’t good for teeth, particularly if they aren’t cleaned properly afterwards. She also loved learning how many teeth dogs and snails have (I learned something reading the book, as I had no idea they had any at all!)
Helping understand the importance of cleaning teeth
Open Wide….What’s Inside is a great book for young children to learn the importance of good teeth cleaning habits and why certain foods can be harmful to teeth. Many children are nervous about going to the dentist, and this funny story helps them understand what dentists do, what they’re looking for in their mouths, and how they help us all look after our teeth better.
Head to Alex’s website to find out more about her and why she wrote the book, including a great video explaining a bit more about why teeth cleaning is so important for kids.
The book is available to buy from Amazon. This is an affiliate link, which means if you click it and buy the book, I get paid a fee from Amazon.
Head to the parenting section to read more articles about a range of topics, including dental care, and Alex’s article about how to make teeth cleaning fun for kids.
