Your baby’s bones start to develop as soon as they are born. People are usually careless about their child’s teeth as they think that after a few years it will break and new will adult teeth will come which should be then taken care of. Well, they do not know that healthy baby teeth will lead to good healthy adult teeth. You should teach your child to take good care of their teeth from the beginning so that they will follow it all their lives. Plus habits are building from their childhood itself.

When a baby is born, the first set of teeth is already under the gums. The front teeth begin to come between six and twelve months. Over the next 3 years, the remaining 20 baby teeth will appear. These teeth are very important for keeping spaces for the adult teeth.

Tips for your Baby’s Dental Health

•       Usually, children love to eat sweets and candies but small babies who are 1- 3 years old do not understand the taste much, so they will enjoy any home-made baby foods without sugar. So look out for the baby food without sugar. You can make fruit juice without sugar. Sugar is the tooth’s worst enemy. So you need to cut down sugary foods for your child. Such foods keep your child’s teeth at risk of tooth decay. You can give food which helps your baby grow and develop and not to destroy it.

•       Bottle Feeding

Try not to let your baby develop the habit of sleeping with a feeding bottle at night or at any nap time. Baby’s bottle is used for feeding and not as a pacifier.

A baby should be able to use a cup at 6 months, and they can stop using bottle by the age of 12 months.

Give your baby lots of cooled boiled water to drink and about ½ liter of milk every day. Breast milk can be given up to 2 years or formulated milk up to one year and after that, you can give cow milk.

•       Soothers or pacifiers

Do not give the Soothers very often as it will have long-term ill effects on the way a baby’s teeth grow. Use it only when absolutely necessary.

•       Thumb sucking

Babies get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from sucking things even their own thumbs. There is no harm in letting them suck their thumbs. This should not be done after your child is 4 years old. Thumbsucking can change their teeth shape so try to distract them.

•       Dental Injuries

When children are learning to walk they are more likely to fall and injure their teeth. You should immediately take your baby to a dentist if they got hurt and the bleeding is not stopping. If they damage a tooth or if a tooth falls and put that tooth back up into their gum.

Your dentist will take care of the rest of the things.

•       Teething

When babies are teething, they get sore gums. Babies will feel restless, cranky, hungry, sleepy, or irritable. Sometimes this might also lead to problems in digesting food. But, it doesn’t make a baby really sick. If you feel that your baby is sick go immediately to see a doctor. Try giving a baby something soft to chew on. You can buy teething rings and make sure they are soft and are big enough so that there is no danger of choking. Some parents said that teething rings that contain fluid that can be cooled in the fridge are best.