Maintaining oral health is important as early as possible, including when your baby is still a baby. Cleaning the baby's mouth including gums, teeth and tongue is important. Then how to clean it? Check out the answer here.
Why is it important to clean the baby's mouth?
Cleaning the baby's mouth is important to keep the baby's mouth clean and avoid health problems. The mouth is one of the entrances to disease-causing bacteria to other parts of the body. If the mouth is not cleaned regularly, the risk of infection and disease caused by bacteria will increase.
In addition, maintaining oral hygiene not only on the gums and teeth, the tongue must also be kept clean. Because on the tongue there are unnecessary leftovers. By keeping your tongue clean, you can reduce bad breath in your baby and reduce bacterial accumulation in the mouth.
Cleaning your tongue twice a day with flossing and brushing your teeth is more useful and effective than flossing and brushing your teeth. It is important to focus on this habit and educate your child to make it a part of his oral hygiene.
How to clean a baby's mouth?
Before cleaning the baby's mouth, make sure your own hands are clean. Cleaning the baby's mouth can use gauze or a clean cloth that is easily wrapped around the finger. You can also use a baby tongue cleaner, a finger cloth specifically designed to clean the baby's mouth.
Clean or wipe the baby's mouth, gums, and tongue with warm water. Wipe slowly and gently. Do this regularly and after breastfeeding.
In addition to improving baby's oral health, this method can also eliminate the bacteria that causes the appearance of plaque on teeth that later grow.
If it is difficult to remove piles and leftovers, gum cleansers are needed. If the cleaner fails to clean the stubborn buildup, consult your pediatrician to get the right advice.
When the baby's teeth have started to grow, how to clean the baby's mouth?
When the baby's first tooth starts to grow on the gums, you can use the method of cleaning the baby's mouth as above. However, when the first tooth starts to grow perfectly, you can start brushing your child's teeth.
Choose a toothbrush with soft brush bristles, a small head, and a large handle. Continue to accompany the process of brushing your teeth, until your child can rinse and spit without help. Usually this is done until around the age of six. After that age, children can be left to brush their teeth independently. Get used to brushing your teeth twice a day, morning and before bed. Take at least two minutes to brush your teeth.
You may add flouride toothpaste as large as rice seeds on the surface of the toothbrush, at the beginning of the tooth until the age of three years. After that age, you can add a dose of toothpaste.
Important to note
When cleaning the baby's mouth, pay attention to the following points.
- Use a piece of soft cotton cloth and dip it in warm water.
- Use water that is not too hot because it can irritate the baby's oral cavity and taste buds that can interfere with normal eating and drinking behavior.
- Open the baby's mouth by lowering the tip of the baby's lips.
- In some babies, it may be difficult to remove leftovers from the tongue. If this happens, wipe the tongue with a cloth with toothpaste the size of a corn to remove it. The remaining food that is not perfectly clean will increase the risk of bacterial growth in the baby's mouth.
- It is important to wash or rinse the baby's mouth properly to clean the remaining toothpaste in the mouth thoroughly, so that it is not swallowed.
- Some babies may find it difficult to clean their mouth, if this happens visit a pediatrician to consult.