Listerine

Note: I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for LISTERINE. I received samples for this review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Well, we’ve had our LISTERINE products for a while now and we’ve been integrating them into our oral care routine – and loving it. It doesn’t take much time at all to add Smart Rinse to what we’re already doing, and as a mom it makes me happy to know that the Smart Rinse is helping to clean all the germs the boys may have missed when they brush their teeth (let’s be honest; we all know that elementary-aged kids aren’t the most diligent brushers!).

The boys think the Smart Rinse is fun because it’s green and because it has the Avengers on the front of it, so it made it easy to introduce to them. Sometimes they (especially our oldest son) can be resistant to trying new tastes, but they both were open to using this and they like swishing it, too.

I love the floss for myself, because that’s one area I haven’t always been perfect about. I’m a twice-a-day brusher, but I know flossing is crucial for oral health – and LISTERINE has floss for virtually every type of mouth. The POCKETPAKS are another favorite of mine. They’re so easy to keep in my purse and pull out when I need them. They don’t just make your breath smell better, folks. They kill germs, so these are great to use after a meal or snack (and especially after sugar). The kids love them, too, because they think it’s magical how the strips dissolve on their tongues.

Have you tried any of these great LISTERINE products? Click here to find out where you can buy them, and you can visit the LISTERINE website, too, to find out more about what all they have to offer. And don’t miss the great Healthy Habit Heroes videos on the LISTERINE YouTube page!

Be a healthy habit hero and get your kids started NOW taking good care of their teeth. We talk to our kids about how important it is especially once they get their “grown-up” teeth, and we hope that we’re instilling habits that they’ll continue throughout their lives!

“I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for LISTERINE. I received samples for this review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.”

Our family is still a relatively young family – our oldest son, J, is 7. C is 5, and E is 2. We’re loving this stage of life, but we’re also realizing that while they’re young it’s pretty crucial to set a good foundation for them in a variety of aspects of life! We want them to have manners, to share, to be thoughtful of others. And we want to teach them now how important it is to take good care of themselves, so that they develop good habits now that they continue as they get older.

Oral health is one of those areas that we really want to instill the importance of in our kids, and we work on making sure that it’s a standard part of their evening and morning routines. We buy fun toothbrushes for the kids – I think it’s worth splurging on to get them excited about brushing – and we make up little songs to sing to help pass the time.

But even beyond brushing we know it’s important to teach them about flossing, so we’re really excited to have the LISTERINE floss for them (and us) to use! The Gentle Gum Care floss is great for little mouths. It’s soft and springy, but still really effective at removing plaque from along the gum line. And I love the LISTERINE ULTRACLEAN EASY ACCESS Flosser for myself, because it can be difficult getting floss between those back teeth!

We’re also really glad to have LISTERINE SMART RINSE for the kids to use. Brian and I both use LISTERINE mouth wash, but it’s great to have for the kids too because you know they’re not going to always do the greatest job of brushing. The SMART RINSE helps get to all the areas of the teeth and gums, and the boys think the superhero graphic on the front is pretty awesome.

LISTERINE POCKETPAKS are another product I love for our family’s oral health. They’re not just breath fresheners, friends. They actually kill 99% of germs! They’re easy to keep in my purse for whenever we’re out and about.

How do you teach good oral health to your kids? Have you started them flossing and using mouth wash yet? If you haven’t yet, I urge you to start great oral health habits now – be a healthy habit hero! Click here to see where you can find LISTERINE products near you, and be sure to check out the Healthy Habit Heroes video series too!

Well, we finished up the 21-day challenge, and our mouths are feeling “nice and shiny” as our three-year-old would put it! We’ve welcomed this opportunity to discuss oral hygiene with the kids and why it’s so important, and we are glad to be building great habits with them early on.

It was easy for Brian and me to incorporate using mouthwash into our routines, but we knew we wanted to make things fun for the kids so that they wanted to participate! Our three-year-old is still a little young for the mouthwash, but he is becoming a pro at brushing his teeth and getting all the nooks and crannies. We have a song that we sing throughout the two minutes of brushing – here’s a little peek of that song, & of C showing off his toothbrushing skills:

J – our 5-year-old – has been great about brushing for a while, but using mouthwash was new for him when we started this 21-day challenge. Here’s a video of him trying it out for the first time, and a little song we made up to go along with our toothbrushing song… we figured it was only fitting for the challenge!

Our mouths definitely feel cleaner after participating in the challenge – it’s hard to explain, but there’s just a freshness you get from using Listerine that covers every inch of your mouth, and it makes you realize how much you’ve been missing by just brushing. We’ll definitely be sticking with the challenge well beyond the 21 days, and we know our mouths will the better for it!

Don’t forget, you can participate in the challenge too. Be sure and pop over to Listerine’s Facebook page and sign up!

Note: I received products from Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Products Division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in the LISTERINE 21 Day Challenge. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are honest and are my own.

I’ve always felt like I have good oral hygiene. I brush my teeth twice a day, after all. But then I read that brushing alone misses 75% of your mouth.  Can you believe it? I was shocked. I’m determined for our whole family to take great care of our teeth, so we are taking part in the Listerine 21-Day Challenge.

Right now our oral care routine is pretty simple – brushing our teeth twice a day, with occasional flossing. AND, I recently learned we weren’t brushing our teeth for nearly long enough each time – you’re supposed to brush for two minutes minimum, which feels like a long time. So we definitely have some work to do!

Here are some tips we learned for adults:

• Keep your bottle of mouthwash in a visible spot in the bathroom (out of reach of the children) along with your toothbrush and a rinsing cup so that you remember to rinse twice a day.
• Give it time. It can take up to three weeks to form a healthy habit (hence the 21 day challenge!) – stick with it, and let the results motivate you to keep it a part of your daily routine.

And here are a couple of tips for kids:

• Make oral care fun – turn flossing into a funny-face contest, or make brushing a “Simon Says” game by calling out different parts of the mouth.
• Play your kids’ favorite music to help them brush and rinse as long as they should!
• Reward healthy behavior. Offer rewards for achieving brushing, flossing and rinsing goals.

As we participate in the Listerine 21-Day Challenge we will make sure we’re brushing the full two minutes, but more importantly we’re going to start using Listerine mouthwash. By using that, we can clean virtually 100 percent of our mouths. I am so glad we’re doing this early on with the kids so that they develop GREAT habits at a young age! Our boys are 3 & 5, and playing is MUCH more appealing than hygiene to them right now, but we want them to understand the importance of taking good care of themselves.

The boys are super excited to use their Phineas and Ferb mouthwash, and Brian and I love the clean feel we get after using the ULTRACLEAN mouthwash. It’s so nice to know our mouths are truly clean after using it!

What’s your oral care routine like? Do you use mouthwash, or do you just brush your teeth? I hope you’ll join in and participate too – a healthier, cleaner mouth is waiting for you! You can sign up to participate at www.facebook.com/listerine – for every person who signs up for the challenge, the Listerine brand will make a contribution to help Oral Health America’s “Smiles Across America” program toward their goal of connecting 210,000 children with needed oral health services in 2013.

Some other facts to consider:

• There are more germs in your mouth than there are people on earth!

• Oral disease is now the most chronic childhood illness in the U.S.

• More than 51 million school hours and 164 million work hours are lost each year due to dental disease.

It’s easy to see how important it is to take good care of your mouth. I’ll be checking in during our 21-Day challenge (we started on the first to make it easy to keep track) and letting you know how it’s going – and I’d love to hear from you, too!

Note: I received products from Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Products Division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in the LISTERINE 21 Day Challenge. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are honest and are my own.