Giving responsibility for own hygiene, what age?

[motherofboys]

At what age did you stop standing over your child while they brushed their teeth, stopped inspecting their mouths when they had brushed alone and allowed them to bath/shower alone without you in the room?

 

[Nibblenic]

Just before 6 year old.

 

[motherofboys]

Ok, because my 9 and 7 year old do it all themselves, after proving to me for a couple of years that they could do it properly while I was there, but when I mentioned it else where I ended up feeling like I was the only person in the world who would trust a child that age to take care of their own hygiene.

 

[suzib76]

Colgate say you should supervise brushing until 12 years and the royal college of surgeons recently said supervise until 14. That said I don't and haven't overseen (by this I mean checking a few times rather than standing over watching) my 14yo dd's brushing since she was around 10/11 - once I was fully satisfied that she was cleaning all teeth correctly all of the time. My 12yo autistic son is a nightmare for teeth so he does still get supervised as does my 5yo.

I apply the same to washing etc, once I'm happy they can manage confidently I leave them to it. 5yo is years off being able to wash her own hair properly so she still gets bathed by us, DS just gets told to take a shower and 14yo does it off her own back.

 

[BethK]

DD's dentist says DD should have her teeth brushed at least twice a day and the night time brush should be done by the parents up until 8 years old as the child doesn't have the dexterity to do it themselves well enough.

Bath i would say maybe 6.

 

[OmarsMum]

My son has an electronic brush so he brushes his teeth on his own without supervision, I help maybe once a week to make sure they're cleaned well. As for shower I still supervise but he started recently to wash his hair and body on his own, I still stay with him in the bathroom for safety. He's still young to stay in the shower on his own

 

[motherofboys]

My son has always done a fantastic job, confirmed every 6 months by the dentist, so I was satisfied that he was doing them properly. Same with washing, I didn't just say hey you're 9 years old, time to do all this alone. Once I was satisfied he was capable of doing it properly then I let him do it alone. I've never heard those recommendations though, maybe that's something that should be more readily promoted, like the dentist should tell you at each visit or something, or the posters should be on the wall in the waiting room. The only thing that's ever been mentioned was the health visitor asking when he was 2 how he was brushing teeth and I said he was quite keen on it and they after i had brushed them he liked to have a go himself and she said "you'll be doing them for him for a few more years yet"

 

[sabby52]

Dec is 7 almost 8 and I still check his teeth when he is done, i always give them the once over and I probably will until he is about 10-11, I done the same with my eldest son, but I am a trained Dental nurse and have a thing about clean teeth lol Most dentists will recommend that you do it until they are about 8-9 years old.
As for showering and washing he does that by himself and has done for over a year or so.

 

[Eve]

I brush Kaye's and she's 5.5 yrs old but I want to make sure they are done right lol I floss them for her too. She baths herself but I wash her hair. Jake was around 8 or so when I stopped brushing his teeth or helping him do so and he's almost 13 and has perfect teeth! he showered himself since he was like 5 though, all on his own.

 

[Natsku]

I still brush Maria's teeth for her and I plan on supervising for a long time yet as I remember when I was little I would just run the tap and pretend I had brushed my teeth.

She can't wash her hair properly by herself yet but if she's just having a shower to rinse off I don't supervise that.

 

[motherofboys]

Yeah I wouldn't leave my 5 year old unsupervised. He usually baths with his little brother anyway, and wouldn't do a good enough job on his teeth yet.

 

[RachA]

My son is 8 and he's just started washing himself and his hair while in the bath without my supervision. He's been brushing his teeth on his own for a couple of years. He does go through phases where he'll want us to do his teeth though. He gets a dental check up ever 6 months-our dentist brushed his children's teeth until they were 8 and they both still had the same dental issues that DS has had do it's nothing to do with proper brushing.

My daughter is nearly 6 and I still wash her. I let her do her teeth and if she's feeling compliant then I'll check them and redo them.

 

[CaptainMummy]

I brush Paiges teeth at bedtime and she does them in the morning (I give them a fast going over afterwards)
I wash her hair for her in the bath/shower but she does the rest by herself.

 

[Andypanda6570]

I have 3 boys now 24, 21 and 15..I would say about 9 I stopped...They were pigies, so had to make sure they washed properly

 

[kerrie24]

My 9 and 13 year olds get told to shower if they haven't gone in through choice. 9 yr old daughter been doing her own hair for a while now. Own teeth too. Owen has never brushed his own teeth as he is only 5 and hes had a lot of problems caused by thin enamel so I try my best to be very thorough with them morning and night.

 

[Aneesa_09]

My son is nearly 6 and can shower on his own however I still need to watch him brushing his teeth as he says he has done them but hasnt.

My daughter is 3 and I dont need to watch her brush her teethh because she does an amazing job but obviously cant leave her alone to bath herself.

 

[jd83]

I'm glad this was asked. My older son is 5, and I was actually just thinking about this recently, wondering at what age he should be doing some of these things unsupervised. Teeth brushing I can tell will still be a few years, because he's horrible at doing it himself without help. Bathing though....seems like he should be starting to do that himself, but he still wants help with that too. I don't know.

 

[motherofboys]

I think sometimes that help with those things, especially for an older sibling, can feel like a little moment of just them and you. If he still wants help I don't see the harm helping still.

 

[Vickie]

Hannah is 7 and has extremely long hair so I still put the shampoo/conditioner in for her and help her wash it. She does everything else herself though I do double check to make sure all the soap gets rinsed out though!

We still brush her teeth.

 

[Blu10]

Ds is 4 and a half and uses an electric toothbrush, i start him off initially then he carries on and soes a good job. He will bath or shower himself but i wash his hair and just check he is dry in creases before he puts pjs on.