It’s important to clean your child’s mouth at least twice a day.
If your child has no teeth, use a small face cloth or a gauze dampened with water and rolled around your index finger, to gently rub your child’s gums front to back.
Once teeth start to appear, it is important to brush your child’s teeth after each meal and at bedtime. Since young children have a tendency to swallow toothpaste instead of spitting it out, use only the size of a small grain of rice in children under 2 years old and the size of a small pea in children up to 6 years old. Use this time to also gently massage their gums with the toothbrush.
Have your child rinse their mouth with warm water or use a low alcohol content mouthwash if recommended by your child’s healthcare team.
Apply, if required, a hydrating product for the lips if they are chapped and dry.
Nose care:
Whether your child is a nose breather or not, secretions, possibly with viruses and bacteria, will accumulate. Since the nose is connected to the lungs via the trachea, it is important to keep the nose clean if your child is incapable of blowing his own nose effectively. This action will decrease the risk of infection and improve breathing.
The nose may be kept clean through a combination of suctioning and rinsing the nose with a salt water (saline solution). There are a variety of devices available for these purposes. Talk to your child’s healthcare team to find the method most appropriate for your child, including the preparation of homemade saline solution and the proper storage of this solution.
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