A washcloth is the whole toolkit for a mouth that has no teeth yet.

Why bother before there are teeth at all

Formula and milk leave a residue on gum tissue the same way they would on teeth, so wiping it away is a reasonable habit on its own. That is only half the reason this matters, though.

The bigger payoff is behavioral. A baby who is used to a washcloth and a gentle finger near their gums does not treat a toothbrush, weeks or months later, as some foreign object suddenly invading their mouth. You are not really cleaning much of anything yet. You are teaching a routine, one small wipe at a time, long before there is anything at stake if a session goes badly.

How to actually do it

Wet a soft washcloth, or a small square of gauze, with plain warm water. No soap, no toothpaste, nothing else is needed at this stage. Wrap it around your index finger and run it gently across the upper and lower gum pads, front to back, for a few seconds on each side.

Hold your baby the way you would for a feeding, secure and close, so the position itself feels familiar rather than clinical. Talking or singing through it helps too. It is over quickly, and quick is exactly the right length for this age.

Making it part of the rhythm, not an extra chore

The habit sticks best when it rides along with something you are already doing, rather than living as its own separate task you have to remember. Right after the last feeding of the day, or folded into bath time before the bedtime story, both work well.

Consistency matters far more than technique here. A quick, imperfect wipe every evening beats an occasional thorough one, and letting more than one caregiver take a turn means your baby learns this is just something that happens, not something only one person does. If bedtime is already a production, the free story Goodnight, Reef was written to fold right into that routine.

What this is not

This is not a clinical procedure, and it does not call for special gum-cleaning gadgets or products to do it properly. A washcloth or a bit of gauze and warm water is the mainstream standard, and it is genuinely enough. There is no schedule to fall behind on and no technique to get wrong in a way that matters.

A baby who squirms, pushes your hand away, or turns it into a game is not a sign you are doing this wrong. That reaction is extremely common at this age and tends to ease as the routine becomes familiar. If a particular product ever catches your eye at the store, it is worth asking your pediatric dentist whether it offers anything a washcloth does not before adding it to the routine.

When this turns into brushing

The switch flips the moment a tooth is actually visible, even just a sliver of one. The same gentle motion continues, only now it includes a small, soft baby toothbrush and a small amount of fluoride toothpaste sized for the age.

Babies who already accept a washcloth near their gums tend to accept that first brush with far less fuss than babies meeting a mouth routine for the first time. You can see how that first visit and that first brushing routine fit together on the infant and toddler care page, and the rest of this first year builds on exactly this foundation.