Of course, with your newborn, you won’t be worrying about tooth care. However, as your child gets older, you will want to know how to take care of your older baby’s or toddler’s teeth. Caring for a baby’s or toddler’s teeth can be challenging, but it’s still important. Here are some tips you should follow.
As any new parent knows, by the time a baby is just a few months old, he or she may be cutting a first tooth. This is where the care of baby teeth starts. First of all, to help the baby teethe, you can purchase specially made teething rings that usually can be put in the freezer and made cold and hard. Babies love to chew on these, since they help ease the pain and also help new teeth break through the gums.
Oftentimes, children get slight colds or runny noses during the teething process. If this happens, or if your child is running a slight fever, you can wipe the child with a damp washcloth to make him or her feel better. If the fever persists, make sure to contact your pediatrician or other health care professional to see what interventions you might do. For example, you might be able to give the child a little baby Tylenol or some other type of pain reliever. This will not only help fever go down, but it will also help ease the teething pain.
Once your child has a few teeth, you can begin to introduce him or her to proper oral hygiene. For very, very small babies with few or no teeth, a warm, clean, wet washcloth rubbed on gums may be enough to help keep the mouth clean. Of course, always put your child to bed with only a bottle of water, no milk or juice. Once your child is a bit older, you’ll want to begin to introduce him or her to brushing teeth. At first, do this yourself with a soft brush and a little baby tooth paste. Brushing your child’s teeth while he or she is still young will help him or her get used to the process.
Of course, once your child gets older, around the age of five or six, the baby teeth will start to fall out and adult teeth will start to come in. Once this begins to happen, remember to make it fun and exciting. Of course, children usually like this process, because the tooth fairy visits and they get a little spending money for their trouble. Make sure to make the process even easier by providing soft foods if the child has trouble chewing after he or she loses the tooth.
With a little luck and some planning, your child’s teeth will take him or her to adulthood healthy and strong. Good oral hygiene is a must for this, so start early by both practicing good hygiene and taking the child to the dentist for regular visits.
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