Expert answer: The BabyCenter Editorial Team

Though you may be tempted to give your child a piece of ice to suck on to ease teething pain or to cool down a drink on a hot day, you should keep ice out of your child's reach until he or she is about 4 years old. That's primarily because ice cubes can be a choking hazard. They're slippery and large enough to get stuck in your child's throat.

Plus, the sharp edges can cut the inside of the mouth. Ice can also stick to the tongue and insides of the mouth and can be hard to remove, causing cuts and a lot of discomfort. (Ice doesn't melt as fast as you'd think.)

Finally, habitually crunching on ice can actually damage teeth. It wears down the enamel and can even cause tiny fractures in the teeth. So this is a habit you want to discourage at any age.

If your child's begging for some ice in a drink, offer small pieces of crushed ice. "He'll be less likely to choke on tiny pieces, and they dissolve quickly," says Susan Moores, a registered dietitian in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

If you've been using ice to soothe teething pain, keep a teething ring in the refrigerator and offer that to your child instead. Alternatively, you can put ice cubes in a mesh feeding bag and let your child suck on them that way.

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