Five Tips for Looking After Your Baby’s Teeth

There’s nothing like that big gummy smile to melt a heart, and when that gummy smile starts getting filled with little teeth – well, it’s a cuteness overload! But all that cuteness requires some maintenance so here are a few tips to help you look after your baby’s teeth.

Look After Their Gums First

Having healthy teeth relies on a good foundation of oral care. So start by wiping over your baby’s gums after each feed. Use a warm wet face cloth to wipe away any sugars from their milk or formula that may remain on their gums. Once they are eating solids do this after each meal.

Look After Your Baby’s Teeth the Same Way as Your Own

Baby teeth are just as important as adult teeth and poor oral hygiene in the early years is the foundation for a lifetime of problems. The role of the baby teeth, along with helping with chewing and talking, is to preserve the space for the adult teeth. If this space has been affected by gum infections in the past, it can affect the spacing for the adult teeth. So it’s really worthwhile making the effort (as uncomfortable as it is!), so their teeth remain health and strong all through adulthood.

Try to Avoid Cavities

Letting your baby suck on milk, juice or soft drink in bed or in their pram is a fast track to problems. Don’t leave them sucking on drinks for long periods of time as the drink will bathe their teeth in sugar and can cause cavities. Once they’ve finished their drink, remove their bottle so the saliva can circulate and do it’s thing.

Clean Their Teeth Once They Sprout

When the teeth are little stumps use a wet cloth, like the one used to clean their gums,to clean them. Once they get bigger you can introduce a proper tooth brush and get them into the habit of brushing twice a day. Once they hit two years, you can introduce tooth paste.

Give Them Plenty of Tap Water

Fluoride toothpastes aren’t suitable for babies but most town water has fluoride added so by giving them tap water to drink they will get adequate fluoride, which will help make their teeth strong. It also has the added bonus of not having any sugar so you’re further protecting them from the chance of cavities and sugar damage.