Don't Do This to Your Baby's Teeth
As every future tooth fairy knows, those budding teeth that are causing your baby such torment will eventually break through. Keep them healthy, and they'll put in 5 or 6 years of service before making way for permanent pearly whites. Neglect them, and your child will later suffer the consequences. More and more toddlers are getting tooth decay, putting them at risk of losing their baby teeth too soon. Here from YOU: Raising Your Child, by RealAge experts Mehmet Oz, MD, and Michael Roizen, MD, baby-teeth cleaning do's and don'ts:
Don't allow bottles in bed. Teeth that sit in pools of lactose (the natural sugar in milk) are at risk for decay.
Don't fill the bottle with juice. It bathes the teeth in sugar. Never, ever put your child to bed with a bottle of juice. As soon as your child is old enough, offer whole fruit and encourage her to drink water.
Here are the seven worst foods for your kid's teeth . . . and yours.
Do drink fluoridated tap water. Use a faucet, filter or Brita pitcher if you're concerned about purity. If you rely on well water, check with your pediatrician about giving your child fluoride supplements. Fluoride keeps the acid created by bacteria from destroying tooth enamel.
Here's the case for tap water vs. bottled water.
Do brush daily, starting at age 1. You can use a damp washcloth to wipe teeth as soon as they appear, which may be as early as 4 months. (The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends starting even earlier by wiping an infant's gums daily with a soft cloth.) When there's enough tooth surface to brush, use a soft, nylon-bristle toothbrush.
Do visit the dentist around age 1. Don't wait any later than age 2. Return for checkups every six months.
Do brush twice a day by age 2. Be sure to brush for 2 minutes, making sure to clean every tooth. Make it a fun and habit-forming experience. Let your child do it once and you do it once. A musical toothbrush helps keep the brushing going for the length of a song.
Do get a second opinion. Dentists sometimes misdiagnose a cavity, and some argue that small ones don't need to be filled -- that cavities can heal themselves by circulating calcium and other minerals in and out of the tooth. Many dentists are switching to fluoride varnishes and other procedures to promote remineralization.
Here's helpful advice from the YOU Docs for baby's first five years.
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