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Dental Health for Children

As a parent, you look after the health and well being of your children from the day they are born; as a mother, it starts much earlier than that! You try to influence their eating habits, their bathing habits and their social and emotional development to ensure they are receiving what they need early on in their lives to be healthy and successful! After all that's your job, right?

So…what about dental health? Do you provide your children with all the information and tools they need to take proper care of the teeth that ultimately will last them a lifetime?

Years ago, parents were not encouraged like they are today to take care of baby teeth because, after all, children lose them so how important can they really be? But baby teeth serve some very important functions, including helping children establish good dental hygiene practices.

How do you encourage your children to develop healthy dental habits? Here are just a few ideas to try out in your home:

• Get a little stool for smaller children to stand on in front of the sink so they can see themselves in the mirror and reach the sink more easily.
• Let your child help you to select a soft-bristled tooth brush of their liking – if your child has a say in the color or character featured on the brush, that might actually encourage more brushing.
• Have child brush at least twice and floss once each day – particularly after the evening meal.
• Help your child with flossing; it is not something that comes naturally or easily to young children.
• Show your child the amount of toothpaste to use and tell him/her not to swallow it .
• Take your child to the dentist early on in his/her life so they get used it.
• Watch snack intake, especially the variety that sticks to your teeth, such as licorice and fruit bites.

Good dental hygiene, like good spinal hygiene, is encouraged and nurtured, not born. Just as you want their spine and nervous system to operate on full throttle, when you encourage good oral hygiene, your children will have teeth to last them a lifetime.