Toothbrushing... And The Poo Song

I told the story of the Poo Fairy a little while ago.  That explained how we used the imaginary, book delivering, fairy to encourage our son to go to the toilet regularly in the early days after we had adopted him.

Tooth brushing was also a battle we had to face in the early days of our son's adoption.  I'm not sure whether it's just the children's ages, but both are really bad at remembering to brush at all or to do so properly.

Our son's baby teeth were in very poor condition when he came to live with us.  His birth parents had fed him sugary drinks and sweets from an early age.  Indeed, it appeared that his diet had consisted almost entirely of fizzy drinks, chocolate dipping pots and fondant cakes.

The effect that diet had on his newly forming teeth was dramatic.  Within the first few months of his living with us he had two teeth removed.

Our little boy awoke one morning complaining of tooth ache.  It was clear that the pain was severe, even though he was facing it stoically.  I obtained an emergency appointment at the dentist and took him there a little later that morning.  

Examination showed one of his front teeth to be rotten, with an abcess forming at its root.  The dentist advised removing it immediately.  

Wielding pliers, our little boy sat in the chair and let the dentist remove the tooth without a murmur, happily brandishing the tooth, root still attached, afterwards.  I on the other hand was a quivering, whimpering wreck in the corner of the room, watching through my fingers throughout.

That experience made us aware that we really must do all we can to encourage our son to brush his teeth regularly and thoroughly.  

J, inventive as always, came up with the perfect strategy.  He composed the tooth brushing song.  It goes something like this:

<Name's> brushing his teeth, yes he is,

<Name's> brushing his teeth, yes he is,

He brushes them up

He brushes them down

And sometimes for fun he brushes them around and around

Oh, <Name's> brushing his teeth, yes he is

We sang this ditty to our son while he brushed his teeth both morning and evening.  The rule established that it should be sung twice, our son brushing throughout.  The length of time taken to give two renditions of the song being about right to ensure a thorough scrub of our little boy's teeth.

When our daughter joined our family she was initially too young to brush her own teeth.  We did it for her.  Soon enough, she took over responsibility for brushing her own teeth and, of course, we deployed the tooth brushing song  for her benefit too.

You might, reasonably, be asking what this story has to do with a poo song.

Potty training our daughter was a new experience for us.  Our son had arrived already having been completely potty trained by his foster carers.

We finally seemed to get on top of things, central to which was establishing a regime in which our daughter spent time on the toilet in the morning while she waited for the shower, in which her brother was being washed.

In separate, but neighbouring, rooms, the children would sometimes shout to one another as one sat on the toilet and the other showered.

One morning I was called away while they were in their respective positions.  From the bedroom I heard our son call to his sister: "How are you doing?"

"Sing the song!" She shouted back.  "Sing the poo song!"

So our son began to sing:

"<Name's> doing a poo, yes she is

<Name's> doing a poo, yes she is

It could be squidgy, 

It could be brown

It could go plop plop plop as it  drops down

<Name's> doing a poo, yes she is"

"All done," our daughter shouted at the end of the second rendition.  "DAADDDYY need to wipe my botty!"

So, we now have the toothbrush song and the poo song.  A ditty for every occasion!