If you believe in fairies, clap your hands

I like fairies. Not real ones, of course. Just the tooth fairy variety.

My nephew has never had good tooth-brushing habits. We couldn't get his teeth brushed at all until he broke an upper front when he was 3 years old. After that, sometimes we literally had to hold him down and force the brush into his mouth to get them brushed. He's been doing the brushing himself for less than a year, and even then, it was always a big fight to get him to do it. Fighting became part of the settled routine. One major problem is that he hates mint, and it is hard to find good-tasting non-mint toothpaste (Tom's Strawberry is what we settled on). We got him to brush every night with toothpaste; though, I had to put it on his brush, he would never do it if left to himself--and then some mornings he'd brush just with water. Not ideal, but getting better.

Then came his first lost tooth (on my brother's birthday a couple weeks ago). The tooth fairy was quite explicit: "Brush two times a day--with toothpaste! I mean it--with toothpaste!" she said.

And what do you know? He did it! Occasional reminders of what the Tooth Fairy said, and he's off to brush his own teeth.

Quite remarkable, really.

Tonight the tooth fairy comes again for his second lost tooth. She has praise for his new tooth-brushing habit.