At-Home Tips for Keeping Your Kid’s Smile Healthy

Posted March 26, 2020

The most common tip for taking care of your child’s smile at home is to teach them to brush and floss their teeth properly, and to make sure they do so every day. However, that oversimplifies what good dental hygiene means, and the challenges you can face in getting your child to stick to a daily routine as mundane as brushing and flossing teeth. Today, we take a look at a few other, lesser-known things you can do at home to help safe-guard your child’s oral health.

Make tasty alternatives to candy together

It’s easy to stock up on candy as a treat and reward kids for good behavior, or give them something to look forward to at certain times of the day. However, that convenience is often at the cost of the health and integrity of your child’s teeth. The high sugar content in most candies can accelerate the formation of tooth decay and cavities. Instead, have fun finding tasty alternatives to sugar-rich candies. If your child has a favorite fruit, try making various dishes with it. Also, introduce more fruits to broaden your child’s horizons and help them find even more favorites.

Include more dairy and calcium-rich foods

Fruits are a great alternative to candy because they can more naturally satisfy your child’s sweet tooth, but keeping certain things like sugar away from your child’s teeth is only part of the solution. Your child’s teeth also need a healthy supply of minerals and nutrients to stay strong and promote healthy growth and development. Many of these nutrients, including minerals like calcium and vitamin D, can be found abundantly in dairy products, including milk, cheese, and sugar-free yogurt. Be sure to include plenty of these in your child’s daily meals to give their teeth the fuel they need to stay healthy.

Turn hygiene into a fun competition

One of the biggest challenges of keeping kids’ teeth healthy is getting them to stick to a good hygiene routine consistently, especially in their earlier years. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be mundane, depending on what you make of it. If your child loves stories, turn the routine into an interactive story line, with your child as the hero who must save their teeth from dangerous plaque monsters. If your child prefers games, turn it into a competition to see who can clean the most plaque and food particles off of their teeth, and let them win often so they’re excited to play again.

Learn more about caring for your child’s smile

Most of your child’s dental health is highly influenced by the habits and activities they do every day at home, including their eating habits. To learn more, schedule an appointment by calling Pediatric Dental Care at Casa Linda in Dallas, TX today at 214-321-4880. We proudly serve patients who live around Casa Linda and all surrounding Dallas communities.