Dental experts are warning parents NOT to kiss their baby on the lips...
Anyone who's ever met a baby will know that it can be incredibly hard to resist the urge to smother the little munchkins in kisses.
However it turns out there's a very good reason to avoid giving little ones a peck on the lips.
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Because it turns out, kissing your baby on the lips could lead to them having dental problems later in life - which is obviously something you wouldn't want to inflict on any one, especially not your precious newborn.
Dr Raha Sepehrara told Metro.co.uk: “Dental decay (cavities in teeth) is considered an infectious and transmissible disease, this means that it can be passed on from one person to another or in this case from mother to child.
"Babies do not have these bacteria in their mouth. Streptococcus mutans can infect a baby’s mouth from sharing a spoon with the parent, or the parent licking the dummy prior to giving to the baby or possibly through kisses on the lips."
And what's more, it turns out that this has been widely known in the medical community for some time.
Dr Sepehrara explained: "There are papers from over a decade ago that have pointed out that the bacterium responsible for initiating decay, Streptococcus mutans, can be passed from mother to baby."
Explaining why babies are so perceptible to contracting dental diseases and infections, celebrity dentist at Wimpole Street Dental, Dr Richard Marques, told The Independent: “Baby teeth have a different type of enamel and dentine to adult teeth. The enamel is much thinner on baby teeth. It is not as strong as adult enamel so is more likely to decay.”
So there you have it - if you want to protect your children from dental issues in later life, keep kisses on the lips to a minimum!
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