Prevent Tooth Decay from Baby Bottles and Sippy Cups

Your baby's first teeth are very important. Besides helping your baby eat, these teeth hold the spaces for the permanent teeth. Loss of a baby tooth can cause the permanent tooth to come in crooked or not come in at all.

• Get your baby on a regular bottle-feeding schedule and wipe his or her teeth off with a clean, damp washcloth after feeding.
• Always hold your baby's bottle while you are feeding him or her. It is not safe to prop the bottle because your baby could choke.
• If you fill the naptime or bedtime bottle with milk, juice or sweetened liquids, remove the bottle from your baby's mouth as soon as he stops feeding. The sugar in these liquids can cause tooth decay and even damage the permanent teeth.

Keep your child from sucking on a "sippy cup" all day. Besides the liquids in the cup possibly causing tooth decay, a sippy cup may prevent good development of baby's muscles needed for proper speech.

Help keep your child's teeth healthy.