10 Tips For Looking After Your Kids’ Teeth

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Looking after your kids’ teeth is important. By instilling good dental habits early, you can encourage your kids to look after their teeth as they grow up. Here are just 10 tips for looking after your kids’ teeth.  

Disclaimer: This is a collaborated post and may contain affiliate links

Start brushing their teeth as infants

When should you start brushing your kids’ teeth? Ideally as soon as they start eating solid foods. This is likely to be before they reach 12 months at which point teeth may still be coming through. Whilst this may seem early, it’s at this point that your little one will start to develop plaque. This is why it is important to start brushing.

Use the right toothpaste and toothbrush for your kids’ teeth

Grin Natural Toothpaste

You should make sure to use kids’ toothpaste until your children’s adult teeth start coming through. From this point, you can move onto regular toothpaste. Kids’ toothpaste is low in fluoride and healthier for your kids. Infants may only need a pea-size amount. When it comes to toothbrushes, there are special infant toothbrushes for infants. These are smaller and much better suited for going into their mouths. Once your kid can start using a toothbrush themselves, you may want to encourage you kid to choose their own toothbrush. Kids toothbrushes come in all creative shapes with some shaped to look like Disney characters and others shaped to look like cars – your child may be more motivated to use a toothbrush if they had a part in choosing it.

Brush your teeth with your kids

Once your kids start brushing their own teeth, you may find that you need to provide some form of motivation – whilst some kids love brushing their teeth, others find it a chore. One way to keep your kids motivated is to brush your teeth with your kids. You’ll be leading by example and your kids will see it as a group activity helping to give it an element of fun. You can even instruct each other and play brushing games.

Make brushing fun with their favourite song

You can encourage your kids to brush thoroughly by a teeth brushing song for two minutes. The length of time which your kids should brush their teeth for morning and night. They can boogy while they brush!

Organise regular dentist check-ups

It’s worth organising regular trips to the dentist for your kids in order to catch any dental problems early. You may be able to find a specialist children’s dentist who may be able to make visits less scary (it’s often a bad experience with a dentist as a kid that develops a life-long fear). Dentist will be able to not only spot problems but recommend better brushing techniques if areas have been missed.  

Boy drinking juice

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Delay introducing juice

You should also consider the foods and drinks that your kids’ consume. Fruit juice is one of the biggest causes of tooth decay in young kids and should be limited. Many kids stop drinking milk and water the moment they are introduced to juice. You can stop your kids from getting a taste for juice early by holding off. Try only giving them milk and water until they’re a toddler. At which point you can gradually introduce it as a treat.

Choose sugar-free/low-sugar soft drink options

You can also reduce the negative impact of sugary drinks by replacing them with sugar-free and low-sugar options. This is particularly important when it comes to fizzy drinks like coca cola and lemonade – in their regular form these drinks are full of sugar and they will quickly rot your kids’ teeth. Many sugar-free soft drinks use artificial sweeteners which have been known to have other side effects – you may want to read into these before buying these drinks.

Encourage milk to strengthen your kids’ teeth

Other than water – milk is one of the healthiest drinks you can consume in terms of protecting your teeth. Milk is rich in calcium, which can help to strengthen your kids’ teeth as they are developing. Many parents stop giving their kids milk once they move out of the infant stage, but your kids should ideally be drinking milk throughout their childhood.

Give out sweets only as treats

Most of us know the danger of feeding a kid too many sweets. Try to limit sweets only as occasional treats so that your kid understands that they’re not foods to be consumed regularly. Sweets shouldn’t be given out as a comforter – if every time you kid cries, you comfort them by giving them sweets, they may

  • use this as a manipulation tactic to get sweets
  • start associating sugar as a comfort food when unhappy.

Be wary of hidden sugars

A lot of foods contain hidden sugars, which can be just as bad your children’s teeth. Kids’ cereals are a big source of sugar. A single bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios contains more than the recommended daily intake. Whilst this doesn’t mean you should stop giving your kids cereal, you may want to try introducing other breakfast options to vary things up. Hidden sugars can also exist in many foods that may seem savoury on the surface. Bread often contains lots of sugar to hide the bitterness of the yeast, whilst many kids’ lunch hams are even sweetened with sugar.

 

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Here is a fun activity to help your child understand why brushing their teeth twice a day is so important

Teething Brushing Fine Motor Activity for kindy and preschoolers

43 thoughts on “10 Tips For Looking After Your Kids’ Teeth

  1. Your post is just in time, as my kid just turned 1 and we will begin brushing her teeth! Thank you very much for all the advice! We have managed to keep her “sugar free” for the first year, we will see if we manage that for another year at least! 🙂

    1. Happy birthday little one and high fives for parenting for one year! Woot woot! You are most welcome! Well done for keeping her sugar free- with all that available these days, that certainly is tricky. Thanks for dropping by!

  2. These are indeed such helpful tips especially for those who are first time moms. So many things to consider in raising up a kid and making sure there teeth is properly taken care of is a must too.

  3. These are great tips to follow! My sister is worried of my niece’s teeth because she likes to eat sweets so much. I pass this to her.

    1. Thank you for your kind words. How old is your niece? Perhaps if she is old enough, maybe she could make her own list of ways to look after her teeth that she could use as a goal sheet? Thanks for dropping by!

  4. This is some really great info! Thank you for this. It’s always an area and time of the day that can be crazy.

  5. What a list of awesome suggestions! The tooth brushing song actually seems to be a great idea! I will pass this article to my sister, to help her on looking after my niece’s teeth.

  6. I don’t know why, it brushing teeth is a crazy time for our kiddos. Our 2 year old has serious sensory problems, so we are always looking for new tricks to get her to calm down enough to brush her teeth without having to hold her down basically.

    1. Teeth brushing can be extremely overwhelming for a child. Perhaps consult with a paediatric dentist who may be able to advise on making teeth brushing more enjoyable for all involved?

  7. In Norway, children are only allowed sweets on Fridays (they call it fredagskos) and holidays 😉 I’d love to follow that principle when I get kids. Plus going to the dentist is free until one reaches 18 yo. I believe that prevention is better than cure, so it’s nice to read the tips from you as well!

  8. Great tips thanks. Aside from these, I explain to my children that eating food rich in calcium, vitamin C, and a dose of sunlight are also essential.

  9. My youngest just got this two teeth and it’s almost to four but he will not take any cleaning I have been bitten million times it’s even funny by now. I guess I will just have to try harder.

    1. Perhaps try with a cool flannel to start with while you are brushing? Or a little song? We sing brush, brush, brush your teeth. Brush them twice a day. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, fighting tooth decay! To the tune of Row, row, row your boat ?

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Dani is a busy mum, pre-service teacher and and founder of Play Inspired Mum. Her goal is to inspire creative play ideas, encourage the love of reading, offer tips to make your household eco friendly and remind you that you are not alone on this wild rollercoaster of a journey known as parenting! She loves houseplants, giant chunky cookies and all things play based, incorporating learning experiences into every day!