Should you be worried if your baby doesn’t have teeth yet?
So, your little one has hit all their milestones right on time. They have rolled over, sat and crawled when they were supposed to but at 10-months, you still haven’t seen a single tooth emerge.
Should you be worried? The truth is, all children develop at different rates, and it’s the same with teeth. Your baby’s 20 primary teeth are already in the jaws at birth, and it just takes some time for them to appear.
“If your child’s teeth haven’t emerged by the time they're 10-12 months old, there’s nothing to worry about”, says Johannesburg-based dentist Dr Liesel Jansen. Additionally, research conducted by the American Academy of Paediatrics confirms that it’s normal for a baby’s first tooth to appear anytime between 6-12 months of age, and that the first teeth to appear are usually the lower front teeth.
“Normally, we’ll only investigate further if a child has no teeth by 18 months,” says Liesel. “Although there’s no scientific research to confirm this – what we’ve found is that girls tend to get teeth sooner than boys,” she adds.
The best soft foods for babies without teeth
If your child is approaching their first birthday, and you can’t see any signs of those pearly whites emerging, that doesn’t mean you can’t feed them plenty of healthy foods.
Some good suggestions include:
• Scrambled eggs
• Soft fruit such as bananas and stewed, cooked fruits
• Yoghurt
• Soft bread and teething biscuits
• A variety of soups and smoothies
• Soft cheese
• Mashed food such as potatoes
Cleaning your child’s teeth
On the positive side, the later a child gets their teeth, the easier they are to clean. The American Academy of Paediatrics says that once your child has a tooth, you should be brushing them twice a day with a smear of fluoride toothpaste the size of a grain of rice, especially after the last drink or food of the day.
Before any teeth appear, you can still clean your baby’s mouth and gums by wrapping a clean cotton pad, gauze or cloth around your clean finger – simply dip it into warm water and gently massage your baby’s teeth and gums.
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