Taking Care of Baby's Teeth

With the excitement of new teeth came the worries of how to correctly take care of them. I have a special brush that you can wear on your index finger. It's made completely from sillicone. However when I try to brush Danny's teeth I am faced with such loud resistance- I cannot stand it. I am really not sure what is the approach here: to force him to clean teeth which would be subjecting him to lot's of stress or let it go and then risk our new and shiny precious baby teeth.

Babycenter.com recommends to start taking care of baby gums even before the teeth come so that baby gets used to the process of cleaning their mouth. Well, too late now. We did not do that. So now the only hope is that he will eventually get used to it... Babycenter recommends to brush teeth twice daily as soon as he first breaks through.

At the same time at babycenter.co.uk I read that the first year you may not brush baby's teeth but at least "clean" them with a wet cloth once a day and start getting your baby used to brushing at 18 months.

More information on taking care of baby teeth at babycenter

And here are some good tips from a parent on how to brush teeth of a reluctant baby or toddler

Breast Feeding and Teeth Decay

Photo by Ben McLeod, flickr.com
I have been worried for several months already thinking what to do about night feedings (and Danny is still doing those so frequently) when our first teeth will start to come out. According to several articles I read, breastmilk can cause teeth decay as it contains sugars that feed nasty bacteria... Tonight my fears were reinforced after I read an article on Baby Bottle Mouth in What to Expect book (the First Year) . However after my hubby looked around online he found a detailed article that explains the matter. According to this article, no concrete data has been found to support the fact that breastfeeding can cause teeth decay. Actually there are some facts that suggest the opposite... For example, when a baby is nursing milk gets into the moth behind teeth - which is true just remember the latching on pics from any book on newborn care. Also baby really needs to suck to get milk, it doesn't just float freely, so if he sucks, he is awake and he is also swallowing... so there is no danger that milk will stay in his mouth for several hours after feeding... also in some studies they found that breastmilk can protect teeth and that it's ph level is just slightly different from that of water...

Well, I feel better now though not a 100% sure there is no danger to our upcoming teeth

Here is the link to the article for more details http://www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/tooth-decay.html