Best habits and tips to keep your child healthy (II)
- Avoid giving them cold drinks or ice creams.
• Encourage your child to speak in one tone during a conversation.
• Kids can sometimes clear their throat, affecting the way they sound.
Always discourage them from doing so.
• Keep them from shouting or whispering too much.
5.
Oral hygiene It is also important that you take care of your child’s mouth and teeth.
Without proper care, your child can develop cavities, bad breath, and other oral diseases.
Although baby teeth fall out eventually, they play a major role in aiding in eating and in speech development.
So, here are some ways you can keep your child’s teeth healthy: • Make sure that your child brushes at least two times a day.
• Always use a child’s toothbrush as they’re smaller and also soft on the developing gums of your child.
• In the first 12 months, only wipe the child’s gums with a clean cloth.
When the first set of teeth appear, wipe the surface gently with a toothbrush and some water.
• Let your child start using toothpaste when they are around two years old.
• Sweet food shouldn’t be left to linger around the teeth for too long as it can cause cavities.
• If the child has wiggly teeth by the age of 6, let him/her wiggle the tooth so that it falls off without much pain or bleeding.
6.
Dental hygiene You know that it is important to brush your child’s teeth to keep them healthy.
But few know the right way of brushing their teeth.
Here are some ways you can keep your child’s teeth healthy.
In the beginning, brush their teeth with this method yourself and slowly teach them the right way to do it.
• Keep the brush angled at 45 degrees to your child’s gums.
• Move the brush back and forth gently.
• Brush all the surfaces of your child’s teeth (outer, inner and chewing areas).
• To clean the inner surface thoroughly, you can hold the brush vertically and move it up and down.
• Brush the tongue to remove any bacteria.
You can also include the usage of a dental floss to ensure that your child stays away from cavities.
• Take about 18 inches of floss and wrap both ends of it on either of your middle fingers.
• Hold the floss between your thumb and forefingers and insert the floss inside your child’s teeth.
• While holding the floss in a C-shape, gently rub the floss while keeping it pressed against the tooth.
• Make sure that you floss all the teeth and get the jaw teeth too.
7.
Kids’ hair care Poor hair hygiene in your child can cause problems like dandruff, lice, and other infections in the scalp.
Your child can get these when playing with his/her friends in the playground or even contract it from another child in his surrounding.
To avoid these infections, your child should be taught to take care of his/her hair and scalp.
• Wash your child’s hair at least two times in a week to keep the hair grease and dirt free.
• Assist your child on how to wash the scalp thoroughly with shampoo and rinse with water.
• If your child has head lice, make sure you treat it immediately.
• If your child has long hair, encourage her to keep the hair tied up mostly to avoid them from getting dirty.
• Teach your child to avoid sharing his/her comb, pillow, and hats too with other children.
8.
Nail hygiene Children’s nails accumulate a lot of dirt and microbes as they often play outside and in the sand, mud or simply dirty grounds Children and adults alike use their limbs extensively which causes nails to get injured or contaminated.
• Kids tend to bite their nails.
Discourage them from doing so as they can end up ingesting the microbes present under their nails.
• Cut your child’s nails frequently.
• Teach your child to scrub and wash under his/her nails thoroughly to ensure that they are clean at all times.
• Help your child to wash his/her hands after every time they pet an animal, play outside, cough or sneeze, and before and after eating.
• Also pay attention to your child’s toe nails, and cut them regularly
