How to brush your baby’s teeth
Knowing how to brush your baby’s teeth properly will ensure good oral hygiene from the offset, potentially saving you thousands in the future. It’s actually recommended that you brush your baby’s gums even before teeth emerge in order to remove harmful bacteria (you’d use a soft cloth during bath time.
Steps
1- Start early. Getting your baby used to having his mouth cleaned as part of his daily routine should make it easier to transition into toothbrushing later on. Besides, it’s often difficult to gauge when the teeth are actually coming through.
2- Use a dot the size of a grain of rice of fluoride toothpaste or a thin smear and place it on a baby toothbrush.
3- Twice a day, gently brush on the inside and outside of each of your baby’s teeth, as well as the baby’s tongue to remove bacteria that can cause bad breath. As you’re using such a small amount of fluoride there’s no need to rinse.
4- Replace the toothbrush as soon as the bristles start to look worn or splayed.
Tips
There are often concerns of too much fluoride in your baby’s diet. It’s generally not recommended to feed you baby water until they’re 6 months old, but contact your local council to check as to the level of fluoride in the water supply to check whether you should buy fluoride enriched or low fluoride toothpaste.