Children’s healthy futures rooted in good dental habits
A child's dental hygiene isn't always a high priority for a family struggling to put food on the table.
Parents who can barely pay for diapers, formula, clothes and gasoline might consider special child-sized toothbrushes a luxury.
But they're not. Children who lack the proper tools and training to care for their teeth can end up with a cascade of health problems from bottle rot to oral infections.
At the Mother-Baby Program of the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, staff members work to fulfill the basic needs of families living on the edge. They provide the families with diapers, clothes and formula that many struggle to obtain.
Program managers seek to provide toddler toothbrushes to families, along with essential education about oral hygiene.
"We're seeing an increase in the amount of parents who don't have the resources to exercise proper oral hygiene for their babies," said Jeremiah Rhine, programs director at the Sacramento Food Bank.
"We see a lot of bottle rot," Rhine said.
The 250 to 300 families a month who avail themselves of the resources at the Mother Baby Program attend mandatory parenting classes to obtain services. The courses, which include such topics as hygiene, anger management and nutrition, help struggling families stay in balance.
Faye Gasoway, 50, who is raising her 14-month-old grandson, Joesuff, attends the classes. She said she appreciates the sessions because she's learning things about parenting such as children's oral hygiene–that she didn't learn when she raised her daughter more than 30 years ago.
"From the '70s to the 2000s, it's very different," Gasoway said. "It's been 31 years and I'm starting up again."
Managers at the Mother-Baby Program have asked Book of Dreams readers to help them pay for children's toothbrushes.