What cunning tricks do you have to make sure your DCs keep clean? Tell Andrex® for a chance to win a £250 voucher + a month's supply of Andrex®! NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Andrex® have asked us to find out what cunning tricks Mumsnetters have to make sure their DCs keep clean, and learn good clean habits.

Here’s what Andrex® say, “We all know the importance of keeping clean, not only to our health but also our confidence. So if you have any ways of keeping your family clean we would love to hear them.”

So, what tricks do you have up your sleeve to make sure your DC keeps themselves clean? Do you have a special song you sing to them to make sure that brush their teeth properly? Maybe you introduce an element of competition between siblings to see who can wash, dry and dress themselves quickest? Or perhaps you encourage your DCs to clean thoroughly by fashioning them stylish ‘bubble beards’? Whatever it is, we’d love to hear it!

Add your comment to this thread and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 Spa voucher and a month supply of Andrex®. Please note comments may be used by MN and Andrex® on social media, on the Andrex® pages on MN or possibly elsewhere: anon of course - but please only add your comment if you're happy for it to be used like this!

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

add bubbles to the paddling pool in summer.

Personal hygiene is too important to have problems so I've always made it a fun time and let them know they're to do what I ask when it comes to teeth, bath etc

Lots of toys to play with in bath. Toys that only live in the bath.

We have a rewards chart and fun bathtime, teeth cleaning etc are on there when they have some many stars they get a treat, if they misbehavior stars come off.

DS loves me brushing his teeth, as we catch all the different coloured monsters that are hiding in his mouth. Getting him involved in finding his brush on the shelf, squeezing the toothpaste on and turning the tap on is also a big help.

He loves baths or showers too, and again, letting him wash himself independently is a favourite (I do have to go over the bits he's 'washed' though, or he'd be a fetching shade of mud-brown permanently!)

Routine is important I think

My 8 year old used to be a bit lazy with brushing her teeth. In our house, Saturday is treat day with fizzy drink (usually lemonade) to drink at tea-time and then, family time on the sofa with sweets/ popcorn whilst watching either a film or a family show (such as X Factor) in the evening. As I leave for work before my daughter goes to school, Dad is responsible for checking teeth have been cleaned in the morning and I do the evenings - if she hasn't brushed her teeth, she either has the choice of running upstairs and doing it there and then or losing one of the three treats - firstly sweets, then fizzy drink and finally later bedtime. I have never known her to lose more than one of her treats and, although she is much better now, we stick to the same rules :-)

We have lots of fun in the bathroom - Hence carpet now replaced with water resistant stuff! I have always made the bathroom a fun place to be so no little tempers when it is wash time. We count our teeth brushing in different languages - we play, lets get mum wet - and for bath time we love Matey!

When cleaning their teeth pretending we can see all sorts of things caught in there that we're brushing away - starting with what they ate but then moving on to footballs, toys, a TV or whatever we think of which they tend to join in too.

I let them choose bath products that they can play with :)

My son loves smelly soaps and making a mess . So i stock on kids shampoos, and body washes when on promo. they have such strong and sometimes wacky smells. Also some are body paints so encourage my son to paint his body blue and then i shower him off and i know hes clean

We let him play with certain toys while he's in the bath. while he's playing we are washing and we blow bubbles and make noises when we are cleaning him to make it fun

i always told my son that if he didnt wash properly he would shed his skin like a snake. lol Dont know what i was thinking but it worked as he didnt like the milky eyes snakes get when shedding :) naughty mum

my little boy loves singing so we taught him to sing whilst washing and brushing (humming more when brushing as its hard to brush your teeth and sing! ha!) so i sing it to him while he brushes his teeth
we started off when he was little and its always kind of stuck with him since (hes now 8) its so he knows how long to wash for or brush his teeth for

he washes his hands to happy birthday to make sure his hands are clean - or hes now changed it to nice-clean hands for you i have nice clean hand for you even after a big ole p....!! so thats lovely! i didnt teach him that bit just the song time to make sure he has clean hands and he changed it for himself! ha!

and row row your boat for his teeth is now brush brush your teeth!

and to get washed in the bath or shower he sings im going to wash that dirt right outta my hair! (it did used to be man but thought that was a bit strange so changed it!)

and he likes the fruity shower gels and handswashes so we buy them in so he will use it - hes become a shower gel snob! haha hes a big fan of horrid henry and we bought him some of them shower gels and monsters inc ones and after smelling them he didnt like them enough so went back to using ours! we currently have a mango shower gel and he showers with it and sing oh oh oh Jack loves the mangooooooooo! it was off an advert i think and he sings whilst showering!

hes still a scruff and ends up with half an ice cream down his top but nothing a packet of wipes in my bag or car cant clean up! x

A few drops of food colouring in bath water works wonders! Red/green for Christmas, black/orange for Halloween, just be inventive! My top tip is to make some multi-coloured ice cubes, endless fun watching them melt & change the water colour!
Floating flower petals from the garden in spring/summer makes a nice bath too :)

We use an egg timer for teeth brushing, and aim to make our hands really bubbly and clean when hand washing.

DH tells DD's that the tooth fairy is very choosy and will only pay money for the best quality teeth!
Pitting DD's against each other to see who can get dressed the fastest helps speed up the morning pre-school mayhem. DD1 is easy to persuade to have a bath- anything pink and bubbly in it is a hit. DD2 not so easy- she likes getting the ensuite shower to herself (as opposed to a dunk in the bath with her sis) and if I let her use my toiletries and shampoo its usually a good incentive.

We sing silly songs in the bath. :)

When showering, DD likes to fill a plastic bottle with the suds as I rinse off her hair.
Bubbles always work - beards, 'drawing' on her tummy, stamp on them etc etc.

Aw I love reading these suggestions!

I have a newly turned 2 year old who still doesn't understand much so I take control of his cleanliness! After he's eaten, I clean his hands and face and make it fun as he doesn't like it! I sing a silly song whilst brushing his teeth and then let him 'brush his teeth' after. I always take his shoes off when we come back into the house. I ALWAYS have baby wipes in my bag!

Mostly, I don't complain about his messyness when we're out. He jumps in puddles and sits on the muddy floor to play. I just wait for him to be finished and get him clean and dry again afterwards!

He loves having a bath but rarely sits down! So I put lots of toys in and make it a game to sit down and be washed and to have his hair washed!

Like grenedeer said on the first page...Comedy is a sure-fire way to ensure co-operation in things your children don't want to do, but need to do!

We have lots of fun so that keeping clean isn't a chore. My DC's love it when I have to put sunglasses on to protect my eyes when I check how clean their teeth are.

I encourage our little one to get in the bath so she can play with enormous collection of ducks & do punk hairstyles with the shampoo suds (if that doesn't work I tell her it's just bread & milk for dinner)

My son who has just learnt to wipe his own bottom gets pocket money when he does it successfully, he saves it in his money box until we go on holiday then treats himself to some new lego!

I guess I'm fortunate that mine like a bath, so all I have to do to encourage them is to buy some nice bubble bath. The trick I use to get them out of the bathroom is to say that hubby is preparing a snack, so they usually hurry up if hungry.

This might sound unkind but I showed my DS some google images of tooth decay and gave lots of reassurance that he'd never have teeth like that as he's such a good brusher!