Newborn mouth care?

[BPrincess]

We have our lovely week-old girl home with us and were wondering if we need to clean her mouth in any way? Has anyone any experience/advice of this?

She seems perfectly healthy and is formula fed mainly, has a whitish tongue from the milk but I think this is normal.

Colgate website says you need to wipe gums twice a day - is this right?

Thanks

No, you don't need to do that. Once the first tooth comes through, that's when you start with a soft toothbrush.

As long as the white on her tongue goes away after feeds, don't worry.

If her tongue remains white and it looks like a thick coating, it could be thrush and need gel/drops. Bot my dcs had this and needed anti-biotic mouth drops.

Ask your Midwife/HV if you are unsure.

Milk residue doesn't have to go away between feeds - but it will wipe off. My ds had a white tongue for about the first 3 months

If it's thrush it'll be white spots/patches that don't wipe away, and will probably be all over the mouth and gums not just the tongue. Unless your dd (or you if you're breastfeeding) has had antibiotics though it's unlikely to be thrush.

But - I have never heard of wiping gums, and didn't do anything to ds's mouth til he had teeth.

My dcs both had thrush only on their tongues (not on gums or cheeks) it completely covered the top of the tongue and neither of them had had anti-biotics first.

Good point about it not wiping off though, whereas milk does and it does look thick.

If there are no other symptoms, a white coating on the tongue is unlikely to be anything but milk residue though.

It is most likely to be milk residue but neither of mine had any other symptoms with thrush.

Here is a picture of thrush op

Thank you all SO much!