I just lost a long post regarding a child's tooth development (Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care). I'll try again:
First two teeth are lower central incisors. ("Incisor" is the name given to the eight front teeth, which have sharp cutting edges.)
After four months, come the upper incisors. The average baby has six teeth, four above, and two below, when he's about a year old.
After a pause of several months, six more teeth are apt to come in and without much pause, the two remaining lower incisors, and all four first molars. The molars don't come in next to the incisor teeth but farther back, leaving space for the canine teeth.
SO FAR WE HAVE 6 + 6 + 2 + 4 = 18 (within two years it sounds like bleeding into the second year)
After the first molar teeth, there is a pause of several months before the canines (the pointed "dog teeth") come through the spaces between the incisors and the molars. THE COMMONEST TIME IS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE SECOND YEAR. The last four teeth in the baby set are the second molars. They come in right behind the first molars, usually in the first half of the third year.
SO DID CAYLEE HAVE her Canines yet which would account for 20 teeth? She was right at the age she would be getting them.* Geesh!
Also of interest - "The first thing to realize is that the crowns of all the baby teeth (the parts that will show) are formed in the gums before birth. In other words, they are made from what the mother eats during her pregnancy. . . .
The baby's permanent teeth, the first of which won't appear until the child is about 6 years old, already are being formed within a few months after birth. . . ."
*Under the title, "How the average baby's teeth come through." I found this sentence, "Since babies get twenty teeth in their first 2-1/2 years, it is easy to see that they are teething most of that whole period."
Here is my conflict, from what I read in the first part of my post, it sounds as if most children would have 20 teeth by the age of three. The last sentence above reads "babies get twenty teeth in their first 2-1/2 years".
So much for clarifying the 18 or 20 tooth question. Sounds like she would have had twenty teeth but if the canines were't quite through yet she may have had only 18. Go figure!
Lastly, since they are the pointy teeth, do you think we could tell from looking at a picture of dear Caylee smiling? She had such a sweet, happy smile.
Taken from Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, March 1992.