Mother Yara loves the teat of her son Noah. “He gets teeth now, so I put frozen fruits in it and it cools enormously, so he has less pain.”
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Every time she fills the teat with some frozen fruit or tangerines. “He is crazy about it from day one, and he can easily spend an hour with it.”
Yara believes another advantage is that her son also receives fresh vitamins this way. But even though that sounds promising, dentists place quite a few comments about the use of the teat.
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“We see a lot of children having holes in practice,” says dentist Janneke Krikken. “These holes are often caused by frequent food intake, and such a teat has a child in the mouth for a long time.” This causes the teeth to be affected for a long time.
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“It is not so much the teat or the fruit that is bad, but the frequency does matter. Children now have about six or seven eating times a day. I think that’s quite a lot,” says Krikken. “The best is five eating times per day. Three main meals and two snacks.”
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Don’t spread
And if you give your children something tasty, it is good to spread it as little as possible. “Don’t give them a sip of lemonade every time, but let them drink it in one go. That’s much better for the teeth.”
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