Good Dental Habits Start Earlier Than You Think 

Parents can set a child's course for healthy teeth in infancy 

Taking good care of your children's teeth should begin before they can even hold a toothbrush.

Pediatric dentists urge parents to follow simple guidelines early in their babies' lives to create proper hygiene habits and reduce the risk of tooth decay later on.

"I like to see babies no later than six months after the first tooth appears, which is around 1 year old. And it's not so much to examine the baby as it is to educate the parents," says Dr. Lawrence Allen Kotlow, a pediatric dentist in Albany, N.Y.

Among his recommendations: Never let a baby go to sleep with a bottle in his mouth with anything in it but water; and, as important, make sure that if you nurse (breastfeed) him on demand that you not let him sleep with milk left in his mouth.

Milk dissolves into lactic acid, and every fruit drink or juice that has sugar turns into acid in the mouth as well, Kotlow says. Both cause tooth enamel to dissolve.

Fluoride Key to Building Strong Teeth

Another key to strong teeth is fluoride, he says, which makes the enamel more resistant to tooth decay. Many areas in the country have fluoridated water, which gives you and your family automatic protection. However, if your water is not fluoridated, you should ask your dentist about fluoride supplements for your child when they are older than 6 months, Kotlow says.

"Fluoride can reduce cavities by 60 percent," he says.

When their teeth start coming in, children are too young to brush them themselves, the physicians say, but that does not mean the parents cannot brush their teeth for them.

"You want to teach the children that that's what they should do every morning and every night until it becomes a habit," Lowe says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends cleaning a baby's teeth, even the first and only one, as soon as it appears by wiping it clean with a damp cloth. When additional teeth come in, start brushing them twice daily with a soft brush.

Also a help at early ages, between 3 and 6, are the small electric toothbrushes, although Lowe says that by the age of 6, most kids can do better jobs on their teeth using a manual toothbrush.

"But parents should continue to help them until ages 6 or 7, especially in the back teeth," Lowe says.

When the parents are doing the brushing, Kotlow suggests having the child tip his/her head back toward the parent's body, rather than trying to reach over the child's head at the sink.

Brushing should be done from the gums down, Lowe says, and Kotlow recommends holding the brush at about a 45-degree angle to the teeth.

"Then tell them to jab and jiggle down and around the gums and teeth," Kotlow says.

The Importance of Flossing

Flossing is important, too, Kotlow says, recommending it be introduced once a day as soon as a child has two teeth that are touching each other so there is no space between them.

"You can give your child floss to play with," he says, so they get used to using it at night.

However, Lowe says not to worry if a child does not floss regularly.

"Often the child doesn't have the dexterity until his early teens, and if he does it incorrectly at a younger age it may hurt," Lowe says, making flossing later on less appealing.

As important as teaching good dental habits, the physicians say, is encouraging good nutrition.

"You have to make sure children practice good nutrition and that they eat the right things—fruit, whole grain breads, and crackers—and stay away from processed meats and foods," Lowe says.

"Anything that sticks to glass sticks to teeth, like gummy bears, fruit roll-ups, chewy candy," Kotlow says. They can be bad for teeth, especially if these snacks are in lunch boxes and kids do not brush their teeth after lunch, he adds.

Better to persuade your child to finish his lunch with a piece of fresh fruit, which will not harm his teeth, the physicians recommend.

"The fructose in fruit and some sugar substitutes can be introduced into a child's diet," Lowe says.

Always consult your child's physician for more information.

In Other Children's Health News:

Fruits in Childhood Bear Health Fruits Later 

Study finds those children who start early eating fruits lower their cancer risk later in life

It is important to feed your children well—with plenty of healthy fruits—and you may reduce their risk of cancer when they are older.

That finding emerges from a study involving nearly 5,000 English and Scottish persons who provided details of their diet between 1937 and 1939. Researchers have been able to follow nearly 90 percent of them ever since. The youngsters who ate the most fresh fruits had the lowest risk of dying of cancer in the decades that followed, says a report in a recent issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

No similar association was found for vegetables in the diet, researchers at the University of Bristol and the British Medical Research Council say. One possibility is that the custom then was to boil them for up to a half hour, which removed healthy micronutrients, the researchers say. Today's cookbooks say most vegetables should be cooked for no more than 20 minutes, with 5 to 10 minutes in the pot advised for most. However, the researchers note that one previous British study found vegetable intake was not as closely associated with reduced cancer risk as fruit intake.

It is "quite a remarkable study," says Dr. Michael Thun, head of epidemiological research for the American Cancer Society, who is impressed by the researchers' ability to follow the participants for more than six decades. But with an epidemiologist's eye, he can pick out some of its weaknesses.

It is not definitive because it does not have information about risk factors other than diet, Thun says. It did not look at individual diets, and it is "a relatively small study."

Nevertheless, Thun says, the report fits right in with the American Cancer Society's dietary guidelines, which say that people should eat "a variety of healthy foods with an emphasis on those from plant sources." At least five servings a day of fruits and vegetables are recommended.

The study did find that people who had a high calorie intake as children had a higher risk of cancer later in life, but that does not establish obesity as a risk factor, says Dr. Maria Maynard of the British Medical Research Council, a leader of the trial. "We did not look at the association between body size and cancer risk in this study," she says. While there was no association between intake of specific nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene and cancer risk, Maynard says, "our research does not support or refute the effect of supplements."

The mechanism by which good eating protects against cancer is not clear, Maynard says. However, she points to the conclusion of the journal report: "This study provides some support for dietary guidelines focusing on fruit consumption rather than on the intake of particular micronutrients." And, she adds, "we found no reason to reject the public health message that a diet rich in vegetables has a number of health benefits."

Always consult your child's physician for more information.