I hope I have chosen the right board for this topic. My daughter is nearly 16 months old (my only child) but up until days away from turning 14 months…she hadn’t got any teeth. Since turning 14 months, she’s got one tooth in the front lower jaw and two teeth in the front upper jaw. At 12 months, the health visitor (we live in UK) said I should take her to the dentist as it’s worrying that she’s not got any teeth and not showing signs of teething either. That appointment with the dentist was the most useless appointment ever (not to mention frightening for my daughter)…he didnt tell me anything useful and the gist of the visit was - the teeth will come when they will!!!
Now at nearly 16 months, the tooth in the lower jaw has still not come up fully…we can see it’s come out more than halfway, but not quite out fully. The top 2 are also not out fully but have come out more than the lower one although the lower one was the first tooth to appear.
Right now, all my daughter wants to do is bite everything in sight…including my husband & I…but we cant see any other tooth on it’s way.
She’s on the 75th percentile for weight and height. She’s a very active and happy girl and generally has no issues.
I am getting really worried as to where are the rest of the teeth!!! What do I do? Am I being paranoid and worried unnecessarily? Also, how do I stop the biting?
I’d appreciate any advice or tips in this regard. Thank-you
My daughter was very slow getting teeth, also. A dentist friend told us not to worry about it as long as it didn’t slow her eating down. It definitely didn’t! We were told that the later the teeth came in, the stronger they would be. Now at 3 years, 5 months, she still doesn’t have as many teeth as her peers, but it doesn’t bother her in any way. I wouldn’t worry about it, unless it seems to be affecting her eating or health.
As far as the biting, we just gave her things to chew on. She especially liked frozen or cold things. We did have to train her that it was not OK to bite another person.
I agree nothing to worry about. Late teething is usually hereditary. Ask both sets of parents and you might find the answer.
My first child got her teeth late and lost them late. she hadnt lost any teeth when she turned 7! and she was told by the dentist she had great teeth recently
The fact your child has three teeth already rules out any of the medical problems that can cause late teeth. Besides there isn’t a lot you can do to convince teeth to come up.
My 16 month old daycare kiddo has only 4 teeth.
I was a dental assistant before I opened my home daycare. Really nothing to worry about. Only thing to know, is usually kids who are late to get there baby teeth, are also late loosing them. Just so your not worried when she’s 8 and hasn’t lost any teeth.
Thank-you all for your advice. Late teething does run in the family (both sides) to an extent…I had my first tooth appear at 13 months and my husband got his at 14 months but after the first…remainder started to come pretty quickly. I guess with my little one, the worry has stemmed from the health visitor plus with how slowly the three teeth that have appeared seem to be coming out.
Eating-wise, lack of teeth hasn’t stopped my daughter from eating variety of foods.
At one stage, another mummy scared me by saying that she may have calcium deficiency!! But that isn’t the case.
