The are a few things you can do to prevent this disease:
- Make the first visit to the dentist from the ninth month of life onwards, when the baby-bottle caries haven't produced yet.
- Keep your child in a vertical position while it's being fed, and prevent him/her from sleeping while it's being fed with the bottle. If this happens, it's important to wake him up and clean his/her teeth with a soft lint o give him/her some water to get rid of milk remains.
- Avoid extending too much time the bottle feeding. Whenever he/she is able to drink from a cup or a glass the bottle has to be eliminated, approximately in between 12 to 15 months of life. If you want to have a gradual change, you may substitute the content for water, the baby will adapt in three weeks.
- Parents must brush his/her child's teeth as soon as they appear, but without toothpaste because the baby could swallow it. In babies in which we cannot use a toothbrush, his/her teeth may be cleaned with a soft lint.
- Do not impregnate the bottle or the dummy with substances with high cariogenic potential, such as: sweetened condensed milk, sugar and packed juices. There are studies that show the presence of bacterias (related to caries) that have been passed from mother to son in the first months of life. For this reason it's recommended to eliminate the caries that the mother may have.
