Norwich bulletin., 1920-10-01
THE GROWING CHILD
lIints on Preservink Good Teeth.
By the U. s. Public Health Service

From what has ben said in a previ- ous article, you will, realize how inn portant it is to look after your children's teteh, train them to care for them prop erly. and have a dentist examine them from time to time to make sure no de- feet is overlooked.
 Have you ever stopped to think how great an influence diet has on the de- veiopment of the teeth? The importance of pr soer diet is much greater than most people realize.
 When baby comes into the world it is apparently toothless. Nevertheless at this time the first teeth are practically completely formed, lying beneath the gums. In fact, under these first teeth there are already the beginnings of the permanent teeth. Under these circum- stances ySu will understand that these teeth cannot Aevelop as they should if the hcdy is not supplied with a suffi- cient amount of the necessary building material. Hence in the food for your child you should make sue that espe- cially those elements which build bony structure, of which the tooth is a type, are supplied in sufficient quantities This fact recognized, you will agree that proper care of the child's teeth really begins in earliest infancy even before any teeth have appeared, and should be directed especially to the infants feed ing. Nursing at the breast is by all odds | the best way to start the proper devel. epment of the childs teeth.
 1 The two most important clements need
 ed in the diet for building sound teeth i are lime and phosphoric acid and for the growing child there is not a better sourc. 1 of these than milk; mothers milk in in. fancy and clean cows milk later. After infancy the diet of every child should in. 1 clude . glass of milk with each meal l and in addition to this there should b. other sources of mineral salts, such a, fruits, green vegetables and pure water But there is another important thins
 to remember about the relation of fooC l to good teeth, and that is the influenc l of exercise. Just as regular use of tn, muscles makes the muscles large firm and strong, so regular use of the teetl for chewing helps to make stronger ant better teeth. The food should therefore be presented in such a form that 1t vii require chewing. For this reason tn diet should include a certain alnaount o coarse wh0le-grain breads, hard tack baked potatoes eaten with their Jackets fresh apples,-these and similar article included in the food will help to mak good teeth
 Decay Of the teeth. also spoken of a 1 dental earies'' is caused by the actio of germs or bacteria which lodge upo the less exposed parts of the teeth A a result of their growth the tooth strnc tufNe is softened. allowing the succeedin generations of bacteria to penetrate fur ther into the substance of the tooth
 Much can be done to prevent this de cay of the teeth, and this accunulatio
 of germs. by brushing and cleaning tn
 teeth regularly Each child shou1. h
 taught the proper use of the tooth brusl
 and the mother should train her child brush the teeth regularly after each rnea
 At the present time the proper use of tn tooth brush is tausfat in many schoo, by means of the tooth drills" but tn will help but little if the mother doe not make sure that this teaching is ac ualiy applied in the home.
 Does your child brush his teeth res1 larly? Do you see that a good toot
 brush and some pleasant tooth paste (
 other dentifrice is at hand? Do you ev, look at your child's teeth? These a,
 some of your responsibilities.