Post Travel Day

Well it's been a huge day!! As predicted little man is very unsettled.  Has not eaten tea and  absolutely refused to bathe.  A small scrape on the knee, now covered with band-aides is the 'cause' tonight. 

"I hurt... too sore.... sting...."

Which opens up the conversation about personal hygiene!!! Tonights topic ;)

He has always been fussy about bathing.  Actually fussy would not really be the correct term.  Down right difficult would be better since I am trying to keep the blog clean!! 

Our home is very small. A work in progress. Progress/renovations occur every 3-4 years. So it's slow going. Anyways we did not have a bath in the house.  We had an old shower.  And guess who could not handle having a shower.... yep.  Never!!!  We tried every trick in the book and nothing ever worked.  We did however have a large laundry tub. Fortunately he loved splashing in the tub. Unfortunately he was fast growing out of the tub.  We also have a pool.  A very large, in-ground heated pool.  And little man loves water, so most of summer he spends in the pool.  Bathing was not an issue.  He was always chlorine clean ;) But of course in winter, the bathing once again became an issue.

One idea suggested to us was to put a bucket/basin into the shower recess and fill for him.  Our baby bath just happened to fit... so that worked... sorta.  By the time he hopped in - not much water was left in the bath... but he was clean so it was all good.  Our other option was to visit friends and family who had a bath ;).

We have also discovered that temperature plays a role in the bath routine.  Not hot but just warm, and he could sit in it until it was stone cold!!!

Fortunately we received some funding to support us with some of Connors needs and of course one of the concerns was the bath issue, so now we have a new bathroom!!!  And he just loves it!!!

He also has issues with the teeth brushing thing.

Firstly toothpaste - We can't get any form of minty anything near his mouth so rinses are out unless its salt water which he would drink!! We have tried bubble gum, apple, banana flavored toothpaste - nothing worked for more than a week. Every time I see a different flavor I grab it to try...Lol. 

As for brushes... We have an array - vibrating, flashing, ones that sing songs hehehehe. We tried everything. One OT suggested one you put on your finger like a thimble, but they too are hard to get.

Yep a draw full of kids toothbrushes and toothpastes.

Another thing we tried, since he is a iPhone/iPad addict, was an app by McCleans called "Nurdle Time".  It plays a little tune so you can wiggle as you brush and it talks/sings you through the process.  It is timed too - for the 2 minutes.  Once you have finished you earn credits to dress your little Nurdle dude in outfits.  Worked wonders for about a fortnight - then nothing would get him back near a toothbrush.

Seriously it took Daddy holding him and bruising his face to open the mouth so I could stick a tooth brush in there... and honestly we gave up. The physical and emotional drain every night and every morning was something I could do without. So we continued to say tooth brush time - but if he just wanted to watch the others - we let him. 

Until we started our charts.  Because it was on the chart - it had to be done.  We figured it was time to tackle it again. We got out the array of toothbrushes and he picked one that had "colgate" written on it... why??? Because "C" is for "Connor". (Yep - he is learning to recognize his name!!)

Still won't use the toothpaste, but we have found a Gel at the chemist (Thanks to a special dentist friend for suggesting...) called Chlorofluor that we can use as a toothpaste or to rub on his teeth after a 'just water' brush. So at least his teeth are half way clean.

BUT of course, nothing worked tonight.  And I have no energy after a busy day of yard work to fight.  So now he is asleep, with just a hand, face and foot wash, and I am about to sneak in to rub some gel on his teeth.  So if I don't blog for a couple of days - I have lost a finger and am in recovery!!  ;)

Night All!!! And wish me luck :)