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Healthy Baby Teeth Tips
1. Protect Your Baby’s Teeth With Fluoride
Fluoride (said like floor-eyed)
protects teeth from tooth decay and helps heal early decay.
Fluoride is in the drinking water
of •
many towns and cities. Ask your dentist or
doctor if your water has fluoride in it. If it doesn’t, talk to
your dentist or doctor about giving you a prescription for
fluoride drops for your baby.
2. Check and Clean Your Baby’s Teeth
Check your baby’s teeth—
Healthy teeth should be all
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one color. If you see spots or stains on the teeth, take your
baby to your dentist.
Clean your baby’s teeth—
Clean your baby’s teeth as soon as
they come in with a clean, soft
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cloth or a baby’s toothbrush. Clean the teeth at least once a
day. It’s best to clean them right before bedtime.
At about age 2, most of your
child’s teeth will be in. Now you can
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start brushing them with a small drop of fluoride toothpaste.
Young children cannot get their
teeth clean by themselves. Until
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they are 7 or 8 years old, you will need to help them brush. Try
brushing their teeth first and then letting them finish. And be
sure that you put the toothpaste on the brush—use only a
pea-sized amount of toothpaste.
3. Feed Your Baby Healthy Food
Choose foods that do not have a lot of
sugar in them. Give your child fruits and vegetables instead of candy
and cookies.
4. Prevent Baby Bottle Tooth Decay
Do not put your baby to bed with a bottle
at night or at nap time. (If you put your baby to bed with a bottle,
fill it only with water.)
Milk, formula, juices, and other
sweet •
drinks such as soda all have sugar in
them. Sucking on a bottle filled with liquids that have sugar in
them can cause tooth decay. Decayed teeth can cause pain and can
cost a lot to fill.
During the day, do not give your
baby a bottle filled with sweet drinks to
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use like a pacifier.
If your baby uses a pacifier, do
not dip it in anything sweet like sugar
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honey.
Near his first birthday, you should teach
your child to drink from a cup instead of a bottle.
5. Take Your Child to the Dentist
Ask your dentist when to bring your child
in for his first visit. Usually, the dentist will want to see a child by
his first birthday. At this first visit, your dentist can quickly check
your child’s teeth.
Source:
NIDCR
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