You should start cleaning your baby's teeth as soon as that first pearly white sprouts (for most babies that's around 4 months). "At first, just use a piece of gauze moistened with water to wipe plaque from your baby's teeth and gums". You don't need to use toothpaste, but try to clean your baby's teeth twice a day.

Once your baby has several teeth, you might try using a small toothbrush with just two or three rows of very soft bristles. Ask your pediatrician whether to use toothpaste, and what type of toothpaste. If you live in an area where the water is fluoridated, he might advise against using toothpaste that contains fluoride. If your water isn't fluoridated, he might prescribe fluoride drops or tablets and recommend fluoridated toothpaste. Either way you should know that fluoride can be toxic to children if ingested in large quantities. (Poison control centers around the country get thousands of toothpaste-related calls each year.)

To prevent problems, keep toothpaste out of your child's reach, and use only a half-pea-sized drop when brushing. Encourage your child to spit out the toothpaste rather than swallow it — a concept that's hard for very young children to understand.

7 Tips on Baby Tooth Care

Now that your baby's teeth are on their way in, it's time to start taking care of them. Even though this set will only be around for a short time, their health essential to your baby's gums and those future permanent teeth.

Make sure your baby's new teeth get the best care:

1. Start cleaning your child's mouth even before her teeth come in. Wipe the gums off after each feeding with a warm, wet washcloth or a dampened piece of gauze wrapped around your finger. You can also buy thimblelike, soft rubbery devices (they fit over your index finger) to use for rubbing off excess food.

2. Once the teeth begin coming in, start taking care of them right away. Many parents think baby teeth aren't important because they're eventually replaced by permanent ones. But these first teeth preserve the spacing for the permanent ones and help baby chew and talk. If they're not cared for properly the can decay, leading to a gum infection called gingivitis, which can affect the spacing of permanent teeth.

3. Watch for cavities. The first signs of cavities in baby teeth are discoloration and minor pitting. Putting baby to bed with a bottle of milk (or worse, juice) is notorious for causing cavities. Don't leave your infant with a bottle for long periods of time, especially if you notice he's no longer feeding and is just using the bottle for comfort.

4. Follow meals with water. Most infant foods easily wash off baby's teeth with just a drink of water after meals. But it's good to introduce a toothbrush (choose a very soft one) as soon as possible, so baby can get used to having it in his mouth. You probably won't need to use the brush to actually clean baby's teeth until he's eating only table foods (and has a significant number of teeth), at around 18 months. However, you'll want to gently clean your child's teeth with a toothbrush or thimblelike cleaner and some bicarbonate of soda if your toddler has eaten sticky, sugary foods.

5. Begin using a pea-size amount of nonfluoride toothpaste once baby is about age 2. Wait until at least age 3, when your child is old enough not to swallow the toothpaste, before introducing the fluoride kind.

6. Regulate baby's fluoride intake. Even though your baby isn't using a fluoride toothpaste, he should get enough fluoride -- important for preventing tooth decay -- from drinking tap water. Most communal water supplies have it added just for this beneficial purpose. Ask your doctor about fluoride supplements baby can take once he's 6 months old if your tap water is not fluoridated or your child doesn't drink any tap water.

7. Schedule a dental exam. The American Dental Association recommends that baby get his first dental exam at age 1, but most pediatricians agree that the first visit can wait until age 3, as long as you practice good home care.

If you take good care of this first set of pearly whites, you can establish good dental habits for years to come.