Baby Tooth Brushing and Oral Care with @firstgrin Ashley Lerman, DDS

0 (1s):

So which foods are not safe for your baby to eat? You guys know I'm usually all about sharing all of the foods that your baby can safely eat, but there are definitely some foods that we steer clear of when starting solid foods. I have a free feeding guide called 15 Foods Never to Feed that will help you recognize which foods aren't safe. Now. most of the foods inside the 15 Foods Never to Feed Guide we avoid because they're choking hazards. But I'm providing you with tips on how to modify those foods so they are safe for your baby to eat. You can download the 15 Foods Never to Feed free feeding guide by going to babyledweaning.co/resources.

0 (41s):

Again, that's babyledweaning.co/resources to download your free feeding guide 15 Foods Never to Feed with the modification tips on how to make those foods safer. Happy Feeding! Anyone have a picky eater? A mom who signed up for my workshop this week said I wasn't brave enough to try Baby-Led Weaning with my firstborn, who's now a picky eater. Second baby turns six months soon. I want to provide him with the resources to do baby-led weaning. If you are looking for those resources too. They're all inside of my free online video workshop called Baby-Led Weaning for Beginners. We're gonna cut through the confusion and set the record straight about starting solid foods safely so you can finally stop hunting and pecking all around the internet. For your answers, sign up for this week's workshop times at babyledweaning.co.

0 (1m 24s):

I'll see you there

1 (1m 25s):

In the data. If you have a single cavity in the baby teeth, you're three times likelier to have a cavity in the adult teeth. We're really setting a healthy foundation for those adult teeth. If that bad is in the mouth, it can spread to the adult teeth and we wanna set that healthy stage. If we get a cavity in the baby teeth, they spread a lot faster in the baby teeth, which causes pain, infection leads to missed school hours. We really wanna avoid all of those things. Set a good healthy foundation and relationship with the baby and the dentist. We see a lot of parents come in for the first time around three to four where the babies have eight cavities where the teeth are touching because they don't know to floss when the teeth are touching since the toothbrush is too big to clean in between those areas.

0 (2m 5s):

Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning here on the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using Baby-Led Weaning. Checking in on your baby's oral health status. And maybe you're thinking, why does this matter? My baby doesn't even have teeth yet. I have to admit that as a new mom, I had no idea you were supposed to be taking care of your baby's gums. I'm like, I have a million other things to do.

0 (2m 46s):

I remember seeing those little wipes for baby's gums and I thought they were just such like the ultimate gimmicky parenting trap. But your baby's oral health does matter even as early as in infancy and even when they're just drinking infant milk. As a dietitian, I'm always surprised to learn about the crossover between nutrition and oral health. Like yeah, that's really obvious. Okay, our guest today though, she knows a lot about baby tooth brushing and oral care and her name is Ashley Lerman. Ashley's a board certified pediatric dentist. She's also a new mom, her son Eli, he's five months old, just about to start solid foods with Baby-Led Weaning. And Ashley is the founder of a company called First Grin. So First Grin sell carefully curated introductory oral care kits designed to lay the foundation for a healthy mouth and a healthy body right from the start.

0 (3m 32s):

First Grin also provides, they have a preventative digital health app and it compliments the kits by providing education and tracking. And Ashley's goal ultimately is to help pave the ways for families to enjoy lifelong dental health and overall wellbeing. So I wanted to ask her some basic questions about brushing baby's teeth and why does this even matter? I mean, not to sound flippant, but they're baby teeth, right? They're gonna fall out anyway. And her response to this question, which she said she actually hears a few times every day, it really surprised me that, and the other questions that kind of gave her like a rapid fire list of questions that I've been like taking down notes since I knew this episode was coming up and questions that you guys asked as well. I would really actually love to do a full blown second episode where we just do all of your questions.

0 (4m 15s):

'Cause there are so many aspects of oral care for infants that I think are really surprising to new parents. Again, I did not really understand how important oral health in infancy is and how it does set the stage for overall health of your child's mouth and their body as they grow. So with note further ado, I wanna bring on Ashley Lerman DDS. She's here to talk about baby tooth brushing and oral care.

1 (4m 39s):

I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Such an important and under discovered topic for parents.

0 (4m 46s):

I Think you're right. I don't mean to be disrespectful to your entire profession. But I had no idea when I had a baby, people were like, are you wiping her gums? And I was like, why? Like before we get started on why it is important, just give us a little background. What is your professional background? Tell us a little bit about your mom life, work life, how'd you get into pediatric dentistry?

1 (5m 4s):

Totally. So just wanna start by saying I'm a board certified pediatric dentist, still seeing patients currently and on the daily I have parents probably three times a day telling me why does it matter? They're just baby teeth. So we're going through the whole spiel, we've heard it all. I got into dentistry in general because both my parents are dentists and going through dental school I realized how reactive dentistry is. We see a problem, we see a hole, we drill a hole, we fix a hole, rinse and repeat. We didn't really get to the proactive stance. So I'm really interested in diet, behavior, nutrition. I majored in psychology and biology and I love working with kids. So pediatrics just seemed like the obvious route for me.

0 (5m 46s):

And you're a new mom.

1 (5m 48s):

I'm also a new mom. Head is in the clouds. But I have a newly turned five month old boy named Eli.

0 (5m 54s):

And she's like having phantom cry syndrome you guys. She's like hang on, I think the baby's crying. I was like, if you guys hear the baby crying on this podcast episode, please give us some grace. And everyone loves hearing your baby cry. So, If, you need to go get your baby, do your thing. Thank you so much for being here. I know it took us kind of a while to put together this interview. I have a problem. But I met Ashley and I was just like talking her face off like I'm so excited by the work that you're doing and then we never got around to doing an actual interview. So thank you for scheduling for the actual interview today Ashley. We're talking about baby tooth brushing and oral care. So our audience primarily is gonna be parents caregivers of babies who are 6 to 12 months of age and starting solid foods. Ashley, can you just share some basics about oral care for babies in this range?

0 (6m 35s):

Some of whom are gonna have teeth and some of whom don't or maybe getting teeth or might not get 'em for a while.

1 (6m 40s):

Definitely. So I think on the early end we're seeing kids baby teeth. The bottom two pop up around six months. It could range up to one year even further than that. So teething tends to be a really popular topic. We could start to teeth even as early as three months. So some drooling, irritability, hands to the mouth, pawing at the ears because the same nerves that run along the ear connect to the teeth. Some people ask if a fever is related to teething. It could be, it wouldn't be very drastic at this time. Kids are touching a lot of things and putting in their mouth too. So it could be from germs too. So make sure to keep an eye on their baseline. But once we get those teeth, the number one thing is obviously wiping them.

1 (7m 23s):

We don't want anything sitting on the teeth for too long. Whether that's breast milk, whether that's formula, juice, really plain still water is the number one thing that we want sitting on those teeth for long periods of time.

0 (7m 33s):

What does plain still water mean? Like I see them at Target. The other day my husband's like, this is ridiculous. They're selling a special water just for babies. And I was like, well I think in some municipal areas baby, the water might not be appropriate. What does plain do you have to buy special water?

1 (7m 47s):

No. Definitely not special water. I don't want people to be freaked out by that. The only reason I clarify is because some people are like, what about seltzer? What about bubbly water? And data's just shown that seltzer is acidic to the teeth as well. So, if, we are drinking seltzer. Just have some regular water. Doesn't need to be distilled, doesn't need to be fancy. Just water.

0 (8m 4s):

Okay. If you don't mind just using your own baby as an example. You have a five month old. Does Eli have teeth?

1 (8m 9s):

He does not have teeth yet. We're starting to see bulges on the bottom. He's definitely teething drooling a lot, some achiness. So what I'm doing with him is I made a little station in the bathtub. So we give him a bath in the evening and then I have a little banana brush teether that I'll run through his mouth, just clear off the gums. The number one thing I'm doing is just desensitizing him 'cause it makes it easier for him to realize what's coming down the line.

0 (8m 34s):

So what's the deal with the banana teather? It's like the number one bestselling baby thing on Amazon forever. Like even my oldest is nine and that was like a baby shower gift back then. Does it do anything? Is It better than other teethers? Can you just use your finger?

1 (8m 45s):

You could use your finger, you could use a gauze. It's just easy to grip. The baby can hold it work on their motor skills simultaneously. I just grabbed it because babies tend to like it. You really just want something that has soft bristles, nothing too aggressive in the mouth, but you could take a warm wet gauze, you could take a little finger brush that's made of silicon. There are a bunch of different options.

0 (9m 6s):

I remember I used to do a lot more in-person stuff, but like at the baby conventions there was a brand of like little wipes that people were using to wipe the baby's gum. Is is a wipe better than a finger, better than a teeter or are they all kind of comparable?

1 (9m 16s):

They're all pretty comparable. I think introducing different textures does help. Don't stress yourself out about it. If you're doing it all, it's such a win because most people are like, "Am I actually supposed to wipe their gums? You're crazy. My baby's falling asleep with milk in their mouth. I don't wanna wake up the beast". And I have totally been there. I just wanna say I am like okay, it took forever to get him down but I'll keep like a little muslin cloth next to his feeding station, just wipe it over his gums after. And he's gotten used to it to the point where it doesn't startle him anymore.

0 (9m 44s):

And I feel better that you mentioned that you answer this question three times a day, but honestly if the baby teeth aren't gonna fall out anyway, tell us why this matters so much this oral care.

1 (9m 55s):

So main thing is in the data, if a, if you have a single cavity in the baby teeth, you're three times likelier to have a cavity in the adult teeth. We're really setting a healthy foundation for those adult teeth. If that bad bacteria is in the mouth, it can spread to the adult teeth and we wanna set that healthy stage. If we get a cavity in the baby teeth, they spread a lot faster in the baby teeth, which causes pain, infection leads to missed school hours. We really wanna avoid all of those things. Set a good healthy foundation and relationship with the baby and the dentist. We see a lot of parents come in for the first time around three to four where the babies have eight cavities where the teeth are touching because they don't know to floss when the teeth are touching since the toothbrush is too big to clean in between those areas.

1 (10m 38s):

It's really about setting that healthy foundation and avoiding unnecessary stress financially, emotionally for kids and parents.

0 (10m 47s):

So one of my seven kids has had cavities like one or two times when we go to the dentist and the dentist made a point like, well her teeth are touching here and we're not as good at flossing as we should be. Do you floss only if the teeth are touching or should once they have teeth you should be flossing all the time? How often, like realistically what actually matters?

1 (11m 5s):

Yeah, there's like a realistically verse textbook answer. A textbook answer is you should be flossing once a day. Wherever the teeth are touching. With baby teeth, the molars in the back tend to touch around four years old. Those molars are in the mouth anywhere between nine to 13 years old. People don't realize that baby teeth are in the mouth for a long time so we wanna keep them clean from early on. Realistically, if you could get a floss picker in between one area where teeth touch every day, that's a win. And if you can only do it one spot once a day, try rotating that spot every day, switching it up so you make it around the whole mouth by the end of the week. The biggest issue is the toothbrush is too big to clean in between those spots and a lot of food plaque bacteria cram into those nooks and crannies and if it sits there for a long time und disturbs.

1 (11m 48s):

That's what causes a cavity.

0 (13m 37s):

Can we talk a little bit about the drooling? You mentioned it earlier, we've done a lot of content on the podcast about you know, drooling leads to contact rash and contact dermatitis and sometimes parents will be like, oh my gosh, the baby's having a food allergy reaction. We're like, no, there's just a rash around the face and it goes away on its own, you can do things like build a little barrier using petroleum jelly or sometimes just let it go away on its own. One thing I wanna point out to parents listening though is that when your baby is teething and they drool, a lot of times that excess of drool, they're gonna swallow that drool. And it ends up causing diarrhea and parents will be like, oh my gosh, the baby's getting diarrhea from all the new foods. I'm gonna totally stop new foods. But I would encourage you that just to keep in mind that you know your baby's learning how to eat is not happening in a vacuum. At the same time they're also teething and sometimes parents will say, well my baby's teething and they're uncomfortable.

0 (14m 19s):

I'm just gonna totally pause on introducing new foods. And my response is, as a dietitian you can't do that because teething is this ongoing process which oftentimes looks more uncomfortable to us as parents and actually feels uncomfortable to your child and it's gonna go on for years. So like just stopping all new foods is not a reality. Can you talk a little bit about the teething process and what's happening? How much does it really hurt our babies? And I know you're experiencing this yourself in your, in your mom life as well.

1 (14m 45s):

Yeah, absolutely. And I think the main thing is like life goes on. The biggest remedy to teething is time. And we need to not adapt our day to day to accommodate around that. We need to keep living our life, we need to keep introducing foods. We even experience these teething pains when kids get their six year molars, their 12 year molars. Kids will complain of pain in their jaws as those teeth move through. So time is gonna be the biggest thing. Offering solutions like a wash cloth soaked in breast milk or formulas put in the fridge cold is really nice as well. And with that excess saliva, saliva is really, really beneficial and helps the mouth clear out and neutralize the teeth. So that's actually our good friend. We have a lot of kids come in who have dry mouth, whether they're on medication or it's just a natural genetic condition and it tends to be correlated with higher cavity experience as well.

1 (15m 30s):

So keeping the the mouth nice and moist is a good thing.

0 (15m 32s):

There's so much overlap between dental health and nutrition. Like every time I talk to you I'm, it just jumps back up in my face. Like when it comes to choking risk, right? Offering dry protein foods and dry bread foods, that dramatically increases the risk of choking. And that's why we teach parents how to make low and no sodium sauces and dippers and toppers to moisten and soften up some of these foods because it's easier for your child to swallow them if they have some added moisture in there. And then on top of that, that extra salivary production, the enzymes that you speak of are actually gonna help keep the mouth clean. So it is important to be, you know, linking this nutrition with this dental health. How else do you see nutrition linked with dental health, Ashley?

1 (16m 8s):

So a lot of times with nutrition obviously we hear about candy, soda, these kinds of things. But when it comes to the data, simple carbohydrates, sink like crackers, cookies, chips, those break down to sugars in the mouth and think of ourselves when we're eating old fish crackers, we feel them packed into the molars of our teeth. It's the same for kids. So the longer that they sit on those teeth, the easier it is to get cavities. So getting a quick brush in, getting them out of the teeth or even offering like an apple or a carrot, something crunchy to help clean out the grooves, it makes miles and miles of a difference for dental health specifically. Another thing I wanna mention as the winter months are coming in, we'll offer a different cough, syrups, honeys, those kinds of things to our kids. A lot of them are mixed with syrups, sugary additives, So, If, we're having it at nighttime or during the day.

1 (16m 54s):

Just some water after really helps those teeth neutralize and clear out.

0 (16m 57s):

Can you talk a little bit more about feeding practices? So you mentioned like obviously not wanting the simple sugars resting on the teeth, that's why we don't put our babies for a number of reasons to bed with a bottle, et cetera. What are some other things to avoid to prevent the sugar sitting on the teeth? Like maybe you could speak specifically to sippy cups.

1 (17m 14s):

Yeah, so sippy cups and snacking through the day also called grazing. It's better to have it from a dental perspective in one mealtime, So If we're having a juice box, drinking it with a meal sitting down rather than sipping on the juice box throughout the day so the teeth aren't exposed to the sugar, which makes an acidic environment in the mouth. Same thing with eating cheerios throughout the day. Having in one sitting is healthier to the teeth rather than throughout the day.

0 (17m 38s):

I feel like a lot of our messages align here, like two of the biggest saboteurs of the toddler diet. Parents always say okay Katie, I did the 100 First Foods, my baby's turning one like what do I need to know heading into toddlerhood? And I said avoid these two things. The two biggest saboteur of the toddler diet are milk and snacks. Too much milk offered too frequently throughout the day, right? A little bit of milk if your family eats and drinks dairy foods, fine, but most parents offer way too much milk and then the toddler's belly is always full of milk at which point they're never allowed to experience what I call casual hunger. At which point they're not gonna eat that healthy food at the mealtime that you're preparing for them. And secondly, snacking, constantly eating throughout the day. This is a conditioned response to us constantly offering food throughout the day.

0 (18m 19s):

So If, we can relegate food and beverage to mealtimes and we drink water in between meals also from a safety standpoint, you and I were talking before about traumatic mouth incidences and how much of the trauma around the mouth in pediatrics comes from kids running around and if there's food associated, a lot of the choking risk comes from children running around and eating. If your child is seated safely in their chair with their feet resting flat on a solid foot plate, even past the baby age into toddlerhood, they are much safer, much lower risk of choking. And you're teaching them, we eat at mealtime sitting at the table, we drink water in between meals. Would you agree with those recommendations as well?

1 (18m 57s):

Wholeheartedly agree with all of those? Yeah.

0 (18m 59s):

Okay. Tell us a little bit about First Grin and the work you're doing with your company. How did this idea come to you? I just think it's such a fascinating idea. I didn't realize that like there's not a lot, you're right. Like if unless you're going to the dentist, which if you don't have dental insurance, I mean I grew up in a family of six kids, we never went to the dentist 'cause both my parents were self-employed and we didn't have dental insurance. Like where do you learn about dental health if you're not like going to the dentist? How is First Grin kind of filling that gap and for families that also are going for the dentist, maybe you're doing extra stuff for them as well.

1 (19m 27s):

Absolutely. I think first screen came about when I was seeing about 60 to 70 patients a day at an extremely busy practice. I was seeing a lot of three and four year olds come in for their first visit. It's an outdated pediatrician recommendation that unfortunately a lot of physicians still say, h ey when you're three years old, go to the dentist. Right now the recommendations are within six months of the first tooth erupting or by age one. Again setting that healthy foundation down, we really wanna teach you all the preventive mechanisms early on before habits are established. It's much easier to instill these when you have a newborn versus a 3-year-old who can possibly fight back, argue with you when they're used to a routine and then you all of a sudden do a 180 and switch things up, introducing a floss pick really early so they know what it feels and even sounds like they feel that pop between their teeth rather than down the line when they grab it.

1 (20m 15s):

And they may do that occasionally down the line but at least they'll know what it is earlier on. Cavities are kids' number one childhood chronic disease. Again, they lose so many school hours, sleep, can affect their speech, social life. Things like these that we want to approach from a proactive rather than reactive stance which dentistry tends to be and I want to fight against that, make it easier for parents and caregivers.

0 (20m 37s):

So what does First Grin offer as far as digital services, physical products, et cetera?

1 (20m 43s):

So right now First Grin sends out an intro oral care through pediatricians, OB GYNs and other dental specialists. You can order it online or through a provider, and we also just launched an oral care companion app. So what that is, you can log your habits, find a dental provider nearby any specialist based on your location. And it has a digital trauma guide that I know we spoke a little bit about as well that parents have been loving to have on hand 'cause no first aid course that I've looked into across the country has included Oral care in their first aid and we see it all the time, both baby and adult teeth.

0 (22m 44s):

Can you talk a little bit about trauma in the mouth? I was sharing with you that I learned at my dentist last week 'cause she said like which of your kids are playing sports? I said all seven are in soccer right now. And she's like, what would you do if one of their adult teeth fell out? I was like, I would like cry because I just think of how expensive that would be to fix. And she's like, no, pick it up if you save it and if you can call me I can get it back in within an hour. You can save the tooth. I didn't know any of that. Like what are some other thing, like what's the basics of like the oral care stuff? I mean I know you have a whole guide on it so you probably can't summarize it in one answer but what do you want parents to know about trauma related to the mouth of their children?

1 (23m 15s):

Definitely. So we see toddler trauma all the time. Bathtub slips middle of the night when kids are running around for whatever reason, bumping on the crib. So this digital trauma guide shows you step-by-step guide of what to do, when to do it with pictures too so you don't get freaked out. If a baby tooth flies out, you never wanna put it back in the mouth. It can damage the adult tooth. If an adult tooth flies outta the mouth, you wanna get that tooth back in the mouth within 60 minutes and see a dentist asap. This is so crucial when that adult tooth flies out, say it lands in a pile of dirt, gently run it underwater, always plug your sink 'cause we've had parents have the tooth and it falls down the sink and then once it's in the child's mouth, have them bite on either like a little towel or gauze if you're concerned about them swallowing it, put it in a cup of milk and bring it to the dentist.

1 (24m 1s):

That's the next best option.

0 (24m 2s):

What does the milk do?

1 (24m 4s):

It helps preserve the important cells on the root of the tooth to try to keep that tooth alive for as long as possible.

0 (24m 10s):

That's fascinating. Okay, I wanna ask you a couple of, it's like rapid fire right now. Mesh teethers. So sometimes, I, as a Registered dietitian, actively dislike mesh teeth teethers. They claim to reduce the risk of choking, although there's absolutely no data to support that it teaches. Or it puts the fear of God and parents that their babies are gonna choke on foods like fruit when we can show you how to make real foods like fruit safe for your baby to eat. Additionally, one of my beefs with the mesh teethers is, you know all over the packaging it says not to be used in children that have teeth but what do you do? You open the package and you throw it out. I actually have firsthand relative who gave one of the mesh teethers to a baby a seven month old actually had her starting to get her front teeth. She was pulling the mesh teether against it, popped her front baby tooth out.

0 (24m 50s):

She had didn't have a tooth for the entirety of her like infant and toddler days until like her adult teeth grew in there. Really, really dangerous if used inappropriately. Are there, you know we talked a little bit about sippy cups but are there other products that parents are just like using all the time that like they don't realize are actually dangerous to their child's teeth like mesh teethers?

1 (25m 7s):

So that's a really good question. It's so hard with teeth 'cause a lot of things go straight to the mouth with kiddos. I will say things with like sequins. A lot of toys they've ended up inside the gums and we'll see parents come in down, I being like my child keeps pointing to the gum, I don't see anything and we end up like gently fishing it out. Obviously you wanna, whenever your child is doing anything, you have to supervise them. One thing that we also it's worth mentioning is if your child's running around with a toothbrush it could pop to the back of their mouth and puncture their soft palate, which is pretty scary. So If, we're toothbrushing. Just be there alongside them. Don't have them run around. Same with utensils, those metal straws, it could just be dangerous.

0 (25m 48s):

Okay, another question I have is I teach college nutrition, so like nutrition throughout the lifecycle classes and we teach parents, you know, the students future dietitian, how to introduce solid foods. And one thing that is always in the infant chapter are these gnarly pictures of baby bottle tooth decay. Is that still a thing? How does it occur? And the pictures are so gross that like you would never want this. But I assume it, it is a public health situation in certain areas. Do you see baby bottle tooth decay? What causes it and how do you prevent it?

1 (26m 14s):

Absolutely. We see it all the time and it's not even just with the bottle. If we're ad-lib breastfeeding after we've introduced solids throughout the night, we see it as well. So again, it comes back to having something other than water sit on the teeth overnight because the teeth are exposed to that natural sugar. So we see it really commonly, sadly on the top forefront teeth, it's just at nighttime when we're sleeping that's where the milk is pushed by the tongue. In more severe cases we'll see it pull around the back molars and cause cavity along the gum line. So the number one way to prevent it is just making sure we're not overexposing the teeth to any type of milk formula, breast milk, whatever it may be, wiping the teeth at night with water, toothpaste, whatever you're deciding to introduce is the number one way to combat that.

0 (26m 57s):

Can you talk a little bit about toothpaste and choosing toothpaste? I don't, anytime you mentioned fluoride people go off the rails. Like from a scientific standpoint, what does fluoride do? And if you live in a municipal area without a fluoridated water supply, what should parents do in your opinion as a credentialed pediatric dentist?

1 (27m 14s):

Sure. So from the data, and this is a really popular one and I get asked all the time about fluoride drops or fluoride toothpaste. So fluoride drops are for systemic benefit, meaning that it helps the bones and adult teeth developing. Fluoride drops will not help the baby teeth. The reason we introduce fluoride toothpaste is to give those baby teeth an extra boost of help. Fluoride helps remineralize the teeth topically. If you're not comfortable using fluoride, and trust me, I hear this all the time with parents, I would never force them to do anything though the data shows fluoride does help. There are alternatives like Hydroxyapatite in some companies toothpaste that also shows remineralizing effects on the teeth, just not quite as well as fluoride.

1 (27m 55s):

So again, there are a lot of different options people ask about training toothpaste. I don't generally recommend it unless you wanna introduce to your child a different texture, a different flavor because it scientifically doesn't do anything for the teeth.

0 (28m 7s):

It's just one of those like gimmicky things you sell to parents 'cause they think there's something wrong with regular toothpaste. Okay. Summarize what's in a First Grin oral care box. Like what are the things, the tools that are important for parents to have as they enter this new phase of oh my gosh, my child's gonna have teeth and now I need to, it's one more thing to add to the list, but I need to worry about their oral care?

1 (28m 25s):

Absolutely. So we have a little booklet inside the oral care kit of what to use, how to use it, when to use it alongside all of our products. So we have a muslin cloth to wipe those gums. We have a silicon finger brush to introduce to your baby to wipe the gums as well, as well as the first teeth. A baby banana toothbrush like I mentioned I use with my son. Their first soft bristled bamboo toothbrush as well.

0 (28m 47s):

Can I ask, is the bamboo just to avoid plastics or is there a benefit to bamboo?

1 (28m 51s):

It's to avoid plastics. There's so much waste with dentistry. The amount of landfills that are full with toothbrushes is exorbitant. So it's our way of making a bit of a better change towards climate change.

0 (29m 3s):

As far as the app that you have, can parents, I know you, you're working a lot with insurance companies, can parents utilize that app? Because I know especially with bigger kids, like anything you can gamify. My kids are like so into a math app right now and I'm like whatever as long as you're learning math. Like I need to be better about us flossing, but it like kind of needs to be on them. I know the parents should continue to floss but like if they could track it and we could make it into a game, like is this something parents can use or can you only have access to this if like your insurance provides it?

1 (29m 29s):

Definitely you can use it as parents and we do gamify it in the sense that if you brush perfectly for a month, for example, you get a $5 gift card to Walmart, Amazon, or Target.

0 (29m 39s):

To go buy more candy.

1 (29m 42s):

Exactly rinse and repeat but no, it's true. It does make a difference because there's so much app fatigue in that space as well. So we wanna make it a user, like a sticky user experience.

0 (29m 52s):

I agree with you. Like I remember getting my kids the Oral B toothbrushes after the dentist kind of not shame me but she was like listen, if you're gonna do the work, brushing their teeth, just get one with the rotating head. You kind of taught me the difference between a vibrating and a rotating one and then there was an app and I was like why does the toothbrush need an app? Like the last thing I need on my phone. But the idea of like tracking how many days you're doing it for, especially for flossing, which is hard for me to do it the end of the day I have no energy to do it. And the dentist made a good suggestion like why don't you just do it in the morning? I was like, oh my god, do you wanna come and get seven kids ready for school with me in the morning and out the door like there's not time to brush my. I know I need to make it happen 'cause it, it is important. And I see what you're saying. This one, one of our quadruplets has cavities and such a pain in the neck because you have to go take her back outta school back to get to cavity.

0 (30m 33s):

Like I am highly incentivized to keep my children at school, so like I will floss if it means you're not missing more school. Can you talk a little bit about like staying motivated? You mentioned app fatigue, but like how can parents stay motivated? You know, how many things there are to do as a parent, especially of a newborn? How do we stay on top of this 'cause it's so important.

1 (30m 51s):

Absolutely. I think the biggest killer of this is trying to be a perfectionist. If you're trying to floss between every single tooth on a screaming wriggling child, just try to get it in one spot and then call it a day. Don't try to brush for the full two minutes, try to get five seconds day one next week, try 10 seconds and just introducing and baby steps. And don't be hard on yourself if you can't do the full routine. It's really so much more about consistency and progress over perfection.

0 (31m 16s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

0 (32m 57s):

I love that. The whole two minutes thing. I do like the toothbrushes that buzz as an adult. I have, I don't even spend two minutes getting ready. Some mornings I feel like, but I found for myself. And I have one kid too, he loves to take a shower. And we live in California where I'm like freaking out about, you know, water and the cost of water. But I will let him stay in the shower a little bit longer because he will brush his teeth in the shower for a two full two minutes as opposed to if it's after breakfast, he'll never do it. So maybe at the cost of a little bit of extra water consumption, like at least for that kid in the shower getting his teeth brushed, he's gonna go the full two minutes. Do the full two minutes really matter?

1 (33m 28s):

Data has shown that, whether I'm a believer of it or not, I'm not really sure if you're getting to all four corners of the mouth, all surfaces of the teeth. I think that's a win honestly. Especially when you're dealing with kids. You have a house full of children, you're trying to get everyone out the door in one piece, just do what you can. Or if we're putting a timer on like what difference does it make, just do your best honestly.

0 (33m 49s):

And for your app, like I really wanna get this for my family. Can you do different kids on the same app or do you have to have like seven different accounts?

1 (33m 56s):

No, you could do different, different kids in one app. Okay, different profiles in one app. Yeah, different

0 (34m 1s):

Profiles. Okay.

1 (34m 2s):

Yeah, exactly.

0 (34m 2s):

Okay, I'm, I really need this in my life and I know it's something that I know for a lot of parents like oh we're starting late. But even if you, if you have older kids and you haven't been perfect about oral care. Is there still the opportunity to improve oral care even if you didn't start this right at the beginning of breastfeeding?

1 (34m 18s):

Always. Always. And I feel like there's so much shame from dental professionals. I've had so many parents be like my last minute dentist shame me and I felt so bad. Parents are always doing their best. I genuinely believe that it's never too late to start, just start honestly. If it takes five seconds, get in there. If you could floss one little space, get in there. It's baby steps towards a better future of Oral Health.

0 (34m 38s):

Where can our audience go to learn more to help support your work, learn more about the work that you're doing, and then also to sign up to get a First Grin oral care box and to use your app.

1 (34m 49s):

So on social media we are @firstgrin. We have a ton of oral care tips and tricks from parents to other parents that are all evidence-based, expert approved. Our website is www.yourfirstgrin.com. You can order an oral care kit there and we're launching publicly our insurance partnerships as well. So keep an eye out for that.

0 (35m 9s):

I think it's something too that I could see grandparents buying it. A lot of grandparents buy our Baby-Led Weaning course. Sometimes it gets taken different ways by the parents. They're like, is this passive aggressive telling me that you don't like the way I fed the older kid? And sometimes I think I could see like other people wanting to gift this box. Is that a possibility as well?

1 (35m 25s):

It's been a huge baby registry gift. People are loving it 'cause it's helpful, it's educational, it's setting a healthier foundation for your child as well. We've seen a lot of grandparents come up to us as well and order this.

0 (35m 37s):

I love it. Well Ashley, thank you so much for taking the time I have, I feel like we have to do a round two of this interview because after we do this a lot more questions will come in about oral care. And I'd love to maybe do like a rapid fire Q&A episode where parents could submit a whole bunch of questions about oral care and you could answer them.

1 (35m 50s):

Love it. Totally open to it.

0 (35m 52s):

Wonderful. Well thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It was great chatting with you.

1 (35m 55s):

You too. Thanks for having me.

0 (35m 56s):

Well I hope you enjoyed that interview with Ashley Lerman from First Grin. She's online at yourfirstgrin.com. I'd love to have her back to do a full blown Q&A session where we can ask all of our rapid fire questions. 'cause there's so much more about oral health that I was not aware of and I would like to learn more from her. I'm always inspired when I talk to Ashley. I really admire the work that she's doing. Not only seeing patients, but also working on growing First Grin, raising her baby, starting solid foods. It's just so nice to talk to new parents who really understand what it is like as a new parent, because you do have a lot of things to do and maybe prioritizing your baby's oral care isn't up there at the top of the list. But, I, like the really actionable tips that she gave us about how it doesn't have, don't strive for perfection you guys if you can just floss.

0 (36m 40s):

I like how she just said pick those problem areas every time we leave the dentist, they give us a little like report card of which kid needs to work where. And I just started taping it to the mirror finally. I'm like, I can't remember which kid's side of the mouth needs help, but I'm not gonna get to all the teeth every day. But she made me feel better about being able to do some of it. So I will go ahead and put all of Ashley's contact info on the Shownotes page for this episode, which you can find at BLWpodcast.com/406 . And a special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave Media. We're online at BLWpodcast.com. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you next time.

0 (37m 26s):

Like a lot of moms out there, I will totally admit I am quite Type A. I am a total task master. And one of my weekly work tasks is to review the feedback forms that are new students in my program, which is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro that they leave for us. So basically this form asks a lot of questions about you and your baby and your baby's feeding and medical history and concerns that you might have or fears about starting solid foods. And all of this data helps me when I'm answering parent questions inside of our weekly live office hours so I can then tailor my response to your particular baby and situation, right? Because it's not a one size fits all approach when it comes to what your baby's eating, right? Because maybe your baby has an egg allergy or another mom in the program.

0 (38m 8s):

She might really be struggling with how to make meat safe 'cause she doesn't like to cook. So this week on the form, there's a new mom named Janine and she wrote, and this is her quote, "I researched a lot on the internet, and I have a lot of books. I saw a lot of other Baby-Led Weaning programs. But in the end, this is the one that I realized is what I'm really looking for as a new mom. I love that Katie's program has a community, and that there are videos for everything you need to know and how to make the foods. And what I love the most is that there's already a meal plan ready". And this just like stopped my heart because this is exactly why I created the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program. I wanted to literally put everything that you need to know about starting solid food safely in one place with a super easy to follow 20 full weeks meal plan.

0 (38m 55s):

Okay, there's 20 weeks 'cause it's five foods a week. I want your baby to get to those a 100 new foods before they turn one. 'cause I also know you have a lot going on as a new mom and hunting and pecking all over the internet to try to figure out what am I gonna feed this baby. That is not the solution. So If, you want to check out the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program. I would be honored to work with you and your baby. You can head to babyledweaning.co to get started and hopefully I'll be reading your feedback soon too.