Children 24 months old: Nutrition and dental care

The article was professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Doan Ngoc Quynh Tram - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology - Vinmec Nha Trang International General Hospital.

A 24-month-old baby will have significant changes not only in height and weight, but they will also become more and more active and observe and ask more questions. Therefore, this is the period when parents are also very monitoring about their children's nutrition and dental care.

At the age of 24 months, children have comprehensive physical and intellectual development as well as begin to have clear emotions and marked development in social relationships. Specifically, the child's development at the age of 2 is as follows:
Physical development: the child can walk, run or hold and pull toys while walking. Climbing up / down furniture or walking on stairs is not difficult for children anymore. Children can also scribble, build a tower of blocks, or turn the pages of a book. This time also forms the habit of using the dominant hand for upper limb activities.
Intellectual development: the child can point to named objects or pictures and recognize the names of people around. Children's vocabulary is quite immature (about 50 words) but can say short sentences. Children can follow simple adult requests or arrange objects according to their respective shapes and colors.
Emotional development: children become increasingly independent and often express interests by using the word “no”, angry feelings occur quite often but can go away immediately
Development of social relationships : children like to imitate adults and older children, enjoy playing with other children. Children are also excited in the daily chores of the family, like to help their mother with housework. Possession of toys and the concept of “mine” are also more apparent in children.

2-year-old children have a relatively complete development of the digestive system as well as teeth and chewing power, so they can get used to and eat the same foods as adults. On average, the child's diet is 2/3 of the adult's diet. However, because it is still in a strong growth stage, parents need to pay special attention to the nutrition of children:
The diet needs to be full of essential nutrient groups such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, and nutrients. minerals, vitamins and water. This is the time when children can learn to eat rice because the ability to chew and bite is quite developed, can alternate meals of porridge with rice to still supplement nutrition and practice for children to eat more solid foods. It is advisable to change the milk from whole cream to low fat 1-2% or fat free. Daily milk intake is about 450-700 ml, equivalent to 2-3 glasses. Do not drink too many fruit juices containing vitamin C (maintain below the threshold of 120-180 ml/day), instead encourage children to drink filtered water. provide a balanced diet with beneficial meals and snacks, encourage children to eat vegetables and fruits Avoid giving children nuts, hard candies, popcorn and gum Allow children to eat with Children's favorite items

Tooth decay can occur at any age, however, in a 24-month-old baby, decay can be caused by the following reasons:
Heredity: parents have poor tooth enamel, so children who receive this inheritance have a higher chance of tooth decay. Poor oral hygiene: due to the misconception that baby teeth do not need to be cleaned, oral hygiene in 2-year-old children is quite poor. In fact, right from the first teeth, parents need to guide their children to brush their teeth with safe creams or rinse their mouths after drinking milk Calcium deficiency: the lack of calcium will make the protective enamel on the outside of the teeth soft, Vulnerability to the invasion of bacteria makes children susceptible to tooth decay Taking a lot of antibiotics : frequent use of antibiotics in children can also lead to tooth decay Diet: a diet high in sugar due to still drinking Milk from a 2-year-old is also a possible cause of tooth decay. In fact, a 2-year-old child with tooth decay may not need treatment if the decay is mild. If the tooth decay forms holes in the tooth surface, the dentist can use a filling method, but if the tooth is severely damaged causing pain, consider removing this tooth. The best thing to do for children in the 2-year-old stage is still oral hygiene:
Oral hygiene twice a day right from the time the child's first baby tooth erupts Note thorough oral hygiene for children first go to bed every night Control foods containing a lot of sugar in the child's menu, reduce the amount of candy consumed each day Take your child to a regular dental check-up every 3-6 months. When a child has abnormalities in oral health, parents can take the child to the Vinmec Health System to be examined and treated promptly by a doctor.
In addition, parents should also apply some methods of changing habits and improving nutrition to support the child's teeth to develop better.
Besides, parents also need to supplement their children with essential micro-minerals such as zinc, lysine, chromium, selenium, vitamin B1, ... to fully meet the nutritional needs of children. The addition of these essential vitamins also supports digestion, enhances nutrient absorption, improves anorexia, and helps children eat well. Parents can simultaneously apply dietary supplements and functional foods derived from nature for easy absorption. The most important thing is that improving your baby's symptoms often takes a long time. The combination of many types of functional foods at the same time or continuously changing many types in a short time can cause the baby's digestive system not to adapt and completely not good. Therefore, parents must be really patient with their children and regularly visit the website vimec.com to update useful baby care information.