Your baby is growing up more and more each day. Your baby’s development increases day by day, and at the same time, more and more signs of growing up manifest themselves. One proof may be your baby’s smiling at you by showing its tiny white teeth now.
After passing the first stages of teething which is a difficult process experienced by each baby of course, it is time to clean teeth. But are you sure you know everything about your baby’s teeth cleaning, i.e. when to begin and how to do it? This week, Mom’s Land gives you some tips on dental cleaning for infants.
When to Clean Teeth in Infants?
Experts state that dental cleaning in infants should be initiated in the 6th month which is when the teeth become visible. The reason for this is that the baby starts to be bottle-fed when its milk teeth begin emerging, and thus switching to a different and more varied diet by ingesting solid and liquid foods. As some foods containing acid and sugar brought by this change of diet may cause the milk teeth to decay and be damaged over time, dental cleaning to be initiated in this period will eliminate the possible dental health risks for your baby at an early age.
You should clean your baby’s teeth especially after the breakfast and before going to bed at night. Wet a clean cloth, gauze etc. and wipe your baby’s teeth gently. Being not suitable to be brushed yet, your baby’s teeth should be cleaned like this for a certain period of time. After a while, extremely soft toothbrushes may be used.
One of the important points to consider for your baby’s dental cleaning is preventing your baby from sleeping with a baby bottle in its mouth. That is because the acid and sugar accumulating at the tip of the baby bottle after feeding may harm the baby’s teeth. Furthermore, if your baby is now old enough to drink water, giving it water after feeding is also important for the dental health.
The babies with inadequate and irregular dental cleaning have a quite high risk of losing their milk teeth. Loss of milk teeth may result in unhealthy emerging of the subsequent teeth. This causes a lot of problems in terms of both cosmetic and dental health.
One of the dental cleaning mistakes parents make is giving the babies pacifiers dipped in sweet foods. This mistake adversely affects your baby’s dental health. That is because the sugar or sweeteners contained in these foods react with your baby’s teeth, thus causing a risk of dental decay. Instead, you are recommended to feed your baby the natural foods such as apples and carrots which help dental cleaning.
Some of the habits of the babies may also affect the dental health and cleaning. For instance, the thumb sucking habit which is quite common among the infants cause deepening of the palate roof and emergence of teeth with gaps between them. Therefore, it is extremely crucial to prevent your baby from sucking its thumbs.
Lastly, you can use toothpaste for your baby’s dental cleaning when its 3 years old. However, note that the toothpaste for your baby should be a product manufactured specifically for babies with an amount of fluoride adjusted accordingly. The reason for this is to prevent any harm in case your baby swallows the toothpaste when brushing the teeth. At this point, the amount of toothpaste to be applied is important as well. An amount of toothpaste in the size of a lentil grain will be enough for your baby’s dental cleaning. The use of toothpaste can be initiated from 2 to 3 years of age.
