My child is nearly 11 months old and has yet to have his first tooth. He eats Stage Three baby foods and many table foods. He “gums” bread and crackers. My mother tells me that I didn’t get a tooth until I was a year old but I am still concerned. Should I be?
The average age for eruption of the first tooth is 6-7 months, but the range of normal is quite broad: some normal babies have a tooth at age four months and others not until the age of one year.
The first tooth to appear is one of the lower central incisors; the last is the upper second molar (average age 26 months). Although diseases such as rickets and hypothyroidism can cause a delay in tooth eruption, both early and late tooth eruption appear to run in families. If your child is otherwise growing and developing normally, chances are that your child will follow your family pattern and erupt his first tooth at a year of age or so.
