Answered Conundrum Next Conundrum

dtvrivera dtvrivera

Should you awaken your sleeping child to remind him/her to brush their teeth?

I used to have a friend who consistently woke up her children to have them brush their teeth half asleep. Should you do this or just let the dead tired child get a pass until the morning?
Interesting Question? Yes (0) No (0)
RSS

Best Answer Chosen by Asker

jillbeth
jillbeth
Marked as Best! November 30, 2009 12:30 PM
Well, I'm sitting here with severe dental problems from a lack of childhood tooth care, so I would say more power to her! It's important for parents to teach their kids how vital it is to take care of their teeth--I wish mine had!

Although it seems like brushing their teeth while they're half asleep won't get the job done properly, it will get the kids into the habit of brushing at night if they don't want to get woke from a dead sleep! She may be setting a pattern that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.
Asker's Rating:
Helpful Answer? (1)   (0)
Permalink | Report
Reply

Other Answers (2)
Sort By

unwirklich
unwirklich
November 30, 2009 09:45 AM
I would let it pass and remind myself in the future to get them to do it before going to sleep. Not brushing your teeth one night is not going to ruin your teeth. And I dunno about everyone else but if i fall asleep and get woken up even 10 minutes later I have trouble returning to sleep.

If you are consistently allowing your child to go to sleep without brushing, I don't think the solution is waking them every night to do so.
Helpful Answer? (0)   (0)
Permalink | Report
Reply
pjmom23
pjmom23
November 30, 2009 01:46 PM
I think the mother needs to change her own habits. She is disturbing her children's sleep time doing that consistently. She needs to set an alarm on her cell phone to get her kids to brush their teeth right before bedtime. If she still forgets, then she really needs to get a handle on things and get medicated help (j/k).

I have gotten my kids back up to brush their teeth, once or twice in the many years I have been a mother, but since my kids aren't woken consistently, then, there's really no problem. The problem I see, is with the child being woken consistently. This is setting up a bad precedent of sleep problems for her children in the future. Sleep deprivation is a major player in mechanical accidents of all sorts with humans (cars, heavy machinery, etc.).

So, my answer is yes, you should wake them to brush their teeth, but only if you don't make a habit out of it by doing it more than that one time.
Helpful Answer? (1)   (0)
Permalink | Report
Reply

Answer this Question


View All Health and Fitness Questions

Ask a Conundrum


140 characters left

Categories

Large Glass of Conundrum Wine

Welcome to ConundrumLand

Please enter your zip code.