The definitive guide to protecting children's teeth.... what are your best teeth-saving tips?

didn't know that about antibiotics. Wish they would tell you this kind of stuff at the time they prescribe it. Dd had antibiotics so often because she had almost non-stop scarlet fever and ear infections. I never heard a thing about it causing damage to teeth.

My dm was told that my sister's MS may have been caused by the amount of antibiotics she was given as a small dc. We don't know for sure though

well, obviously not BIRTH but when they get their first teeth

I work for a dentist..we recommend toothpaste with more than 1000ppm of fluoride from birth!

Agree with the water thing. My dd only drinks milk and water (her choice) and has by far the best teeth of my three children.

Be VERY careful when agreeing to antibiotics for your 6month - 18 month child. This is when the adult teeth are forming inside your precious' head, just behind the milk teeth that will be appearing - and many antibiotics, even those routinely prescribed for babies/toddlers, can be harmful at this stage and attack the developing enamel. Fast forward 6-7 years, and you may notice a mottling of the first adult teeth that come through, and particularly in the 6yr molars at the back. This means the enamel is compromised/non-existant, and within the space of six months of the teeth appearing, they are totally decayed. This happened to my 7-year-old who had to have two enormous fillings. This from a family that is stringent about teeth-cleaning and draconian about sugar consumption! He will likely need root canal treatment within the next two years. These teeth cannot be replaced. The condition was only in his first two lower front adult teeth that came through, at the same time as the two molars - all the other adult teeth, including the other two molars, are absolutely fine, as these appeared some months later, indicating that they were developing at a different time. When he was a year old, he had three courses of antibiotics very close together - our advice is that it was these three doses that coincided with these particular teeth forming, and the damage was done. Completely unseen. It's scary. Just be sure, if you're being offered antibiotics at such an early age, that it is ABSOLUTELY essential. Ear infections, throat infections, even tonsillitis are generally not fatal - you can keep your baby comfortable and fevers down by being extra vigilant if they're ill. Just be careful with antibiotic use.

It is better that you brush your childs teeth than the child it self. Spend 5 minutes brushing really well and then rinse. Use the correct aged tooth-brush and tooth paste. Brush 2-3 times a day and try to avoid sweets and choclate. (choclate contains caffein). I give my ds ice lollys that i make with juise and he really likes them you can put fresh pices of fruit in to.Lots of yogurt and semi fat milk is good. And start brushing from the time the first tooth comes out. Hope it helps..

eat cheese after fruit or fruit juice or fruit shoots lol to neutralise acid

dont brush teeth after fruit fruit juice or fruit shoots as this makes the acid effect worse

avoid abs

crisps are, apparently, dreadful for causing cavaties. Also, when kids able to brush teeth unaided, invest in one of those sonic toothbrushes - all the family can use it and, cos it's on a timer, it makes sure the kids actually clean teeth for correct time. Most importantly, it's the don for actually cleaning teeth really well.

I think different people's teeth have different tolerance levels. Some are stronger than others. My ds, 6, has strong, healthy teeth that have been through regular amounts of pure juice, sweetened soya milk and a healthy measure of sweets over his life so far! BUT his brother, 3, has been through something very similar and only a few weeks ago I realised his 4 front milk teeth are rotting at the top . I feel guilt, guilt and more guilt . I think coz the other ds teeth are fine I didn't keep a close enough eye on little one's!! Oh dear, oh dear! LET THIS BE A WARNING !! Hence my theory of different tolerance levels etc, etc.Have severely reduced and watered all drinks down and encouraged more water consumption since! Hope this can help everyone and stop the rot!!

1. pick your parents wisely, a lot of how resistant you are to decay is down to your genes. Some people are just more prone to having problems with gums/tartar/decay than others.
2. If you have not picked your parents well, use a flouride toothpaste and SPIT DON'T RINSE. That leaves some of the toothpaste around the teeth to do its work, especially useful overnight or after sweet stuff. Don't swallow flouride toothpaste, too much fluoride is not good, although I think it is mostly that they are discoloured - sometimes grey and not just white patches.
3. Best toothbrush I've found is one that has an elephant head shape covering the brush part, clips on and off, keeping the brush clean - no nasty bugs settling on it which will then just go straight in the mouth. Not that it is any more fun than any other toothbrush but it keeps cleaner.
4. All the other stuff about not just drip feeding sugar and sticky sweet things all day long is also key. The less time that sugar is in contact with the teeth the better.

edit - ds3 is better at brushing than his brothers...

My ds1 was 'prescribed' fluoride tablets after his back teeth were condemned. But then we are in an area where there is no fluoride added to the water...TBH we used them for a few months, then just got toothpaste with more fluoride in it for him.

Ds3 (18 mths) is much better at both having his teeth brushed and having a go himself then his brothers were at his age. He's watched his big brothers brushing their teeth morning and night since he was born. Maybe we should have made more of an effort to brush our own teeth in sight of ds1 and 2 when they were babies/little, so they got used to it being part of the routine?

that looks great ssandy, hope they sell it in the uk

www.gaba.com/htm/402/en/elmex_ANTICARIES_Gel.htm?Brand=elmex&Subnav=Gel

We're using this gel once a week now on the dentist's advice. Helps harden the enamel and thus protects against decay apparently. I can't really judge how effective it is

Well I don't know how much of this is luck but neither of my children have had tooth problems yet - they are 7 and almost 4. Both were early teethers (4 months and quite a mouthful by 12 months - final molars in at about 18 months) and DS who was 7 in Feb is well on with his second teeth (has about 9 through I think).

I am in no way an angel regarding juice, sweets, chocolate, raisins etc. And they have had all of them although no fizzy pop (which apparently has contributed to the filling in the back of my own front tooth which will eventually need crowning) ever and I have brainwashed them into thinking they don't like it.

The good things I have done are:

• right from when they first got their first teeth, introduced a routine of bath, breastfeed, teeth, story. Although still did breastfeed in the night.

• used adult toothpaste from when the one supplied by the health visitor ran out (don't know if good or bad).

• ditched bottles by 12 months and sippy cups before 24 months.

• still check my 7yo's brushing and give them a going over once a day, especially concentrating on the new back molars which are hard to get to because they are lower than the existing milk teeth.

Start them young!

we started dd with a Mam gum massager from about 5 months, twice a day. Switched to a brush when her first tooth came through, which was a natural progression. As it was part of her routine, she wasn't worried by it.

The Mam brushes are great- they have a guard that clips on, so they can't ram it down their throats; a brush on one end and a massager on the other end.
(I don't work for them, honest!)

Only give them milk or water to drink (victorian kind mummy)

sorry that was more of a rant than helpful hint

i used baby teeth toothpaste with my ds(6) and was really meticulous but he still had two taken out and has two that are disintegrating (dentist has told me to leave them alone?!). so i wonder if i just should have used full strength.

also blame myself for giving him heinz baby juice when he was a toddler and should have just stuck to water, which he is now used to.

dentist seems to just skim look at his mouth during check ups. not sure if i should change dentist to one who is more thorough.

his mouth is currently the bane of my life and leaves me awake at night with worry.

There is so much conflicting advice out there about toothpaste for little ones. The jury even seems to be out on whether Fluoride is a good thing at all (too lazy to dig up the links for this one). How much to give them also seems to depend on whether your water is flouridated or not. If it is and you also give them flouride toothpaste (or supplements - does anyone do this?) then they are at risk of flourosis (sp?) which causes damage/white patches on the teeth.

Then when you've got your head around that you need to watch out for other nasties in toothpaste like SLS and Triclosan. Triclosan (an antibacterial) is especially considered to be toxic, but manufacturers still insist on adding it.

DD currently only has 3 teeth so we are favouring the drink of water after sweet things approach. She also has a toothbrush to chew on at night, but no toothpaste yet - but we may add some soon, possibly with flouride as none in the water around here.

Can you tell I'm still confused about the whole thing?

have child infront of you facing away from you. It makes it easier to clean their teeth as its the same action that you use to clean your own.

mirror to clean teeth infront of so they can see what they arre doing.sand timer.
if we give juice(usually only give milk or water)we give it as flavoured water-really weak!(im known to there friends as boring mummy who has no exciting drinks-they havent seen my stash lol!)

lol - moondog just posted my exact words on reading the thread title!

Those tooth timers are good. A little egg timer that tells them how long to brush for. Or if you haven't got one of those get them to brush their teeth for the length of their fave song.

Really water their juice/squash down, if they wont drink plain water.
Children dont need to permenantly(sp) have juice with them. I know loads of dc who's mums are always giving them juice. All day.

Don't eat crap

Clean your teeth regulalry

Er...that about covers it.