1. Brush your child's teeth. If your child is not able to write in cursive, they don't have the manual dexterity to properly brush their teeth on their own. Encourage them to brush on their own, then check their brushing and give them feedback. There is a fun product you can buy called "Inspector Hector Plaque Detector" - have your child do their best to brush their teeth, then have them rinse with this mouthwash. The areas that they are missing will turn blue, so they can see where they need to improve. This isn't something you need to do every day, but it can be fun for everyone, even Mom and Dad, to see how good they are at brushing!
2. Brush your child's gums. Many cavities in baby teeth are found at the gumline, as this is where plaque or build-up accumulates.
3. Use toothpaste with fluoride once your child has teeth. Starting with the first baby teeth, use a small smear of fluoridated toothpaste (smaller than a pea). Older children that can spit can use more toothpaste.
4. Give your child milk at meals and water in between meals. There is no need to give your child juice as there is no nutritional benefit of juice - it is full of empty calories that can stunt your child's growth, and it can cause cavities! Even watered down juice still has sugar in it.
5. Please do not put anything but water in a bedtime cup or bottle. Milk, juice, Kool-Aid, etc. will coat their teeth all night long and feed the bacteria that cause cavities.
6. When giving your child a treat, pick something that they will eat and be done with it. Suckers, hard candy, grazing on M&M's for a long period of time - all of these will continue to coat your child's teeth with sugar, effectively feeding the bacteria for a longer period of time.
7. Take your child to the dentist for regular check-ups, starting at 6 months from when their first tooth comes in, or when they turn one. There are many dentists who don't want to see kids this young, and I get that. It's not easy, as many children are in the "stranger danger" phase and will cry when the dentist tries to look in their mouth. If you are consistently following the previous guidelines, you may not need to take your child to the dentist until age 3 or 4; however, for those parents who are unaware of how to care for their child's teeth, it can be too late if they wait until the child is 3 or 4. The bottom line is this: be proactive and look in your child's mouth when you brush their teeth. If you see dark spots, chips, discolored teeth, gum bumps or pimples, call up your dentist and have them take a look. It is so much easier to fix a little cavity than to deal with a hurting child with an infected tooth!
2 comments:
What about dried fruit? I read somewhere recently that this can be like candy....but I also read of the nutritional value dried fruit can have. What to do?
Dried fruit is a dense calorie source and it has many of the same benefits of the fresh fruit. Many times it is very sticky (e.g. raisins) so it's important to do a thorough job brushing after eating it. The key is to eat it and then be done with it. In other words, have raisins at snack time or meal time but don't offer them all afternoon long. When you eat foods with sugar in them (most food!), the pH of the mouth drops, creating an acidic environment. This allows for demineralization of the teeth, which is how cavities are formed. If you can minimize the number of times during the day that you introduce sugar in the mouth, you are decreasing the amount of time spent demineralizing your teeth. Grazing all day long is very detrimental to teeth, as is sipping on sugared beverages all day long. Stick to eating at meal times and a few snack times, and then the type of food matters less. Hope this makes sense!
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