Experts warn parents about the dangers of kissing your baby on the lips

Kissing your baby on the lips could pave the way for dental issues for the little one.

According to experts, puckering up to your tiny tot can result in serious harm to their oral health in the form of cavities and dental decay.

'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,' Dr Raha Sepehrara told the Metro.

'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.'

Dr Raha Sepehrara goes on to warn parents that dental decay is classified as 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,' she explains to the newspaper.

'Some studies have shown that children who had acquired those bacteria earlier in life were more prone to dental decay compared to children who acquired them later in life.'

Research conducted in 2015 by the University of Oulo, in Finland reached the same conclusion.

The academics interviewed 313 mums about the ways they interacted with their children.

Participants were asked a multitude of questions ranging from whether they shared cutlery with their young to if they ever kissed their tots on the lips and how often they brushed their teeth.

All of these behaviours have the ability of altering an individual's risk of contracting tooth decay.

The team behind the study discovered that 38 per cent kissed their kids on the lips and 14 per cent shared a spoon with their tots.

Most mothers were unaware that cavities could spread by such seemingly innocent actions.

Were you aware of the dangers of kissing your baby on the lips? Let us know in the comments section below!