Improve Your Kid’s Chances of Avoiding Sugar
Though there are many different factors that can contribute to your child developing cavities, consuming too many sugary foods and beverages is often one of the biggest ones. That’s why it’s a common piece of advice to limit your child’s consumption of sugar-rich candies and other sweets in order to help them avoid things like cavities. However, simply telling your child no isn’t always effective. Sometimes, it can take being more proactive to successfully save your child’s smile from the harmful effects of sugar on their teeth. (more…)
What Should Kids Snack On Instead of Sugar?
Keeping your child’s teeth safe from things like cavities can take more than just teaching them how to brush and floss properly. For example, it’s just as essential to help them develop discipline and restraint when it comes to things like eating too many foods with processed sugars. These can quickly lead to weakened tooth enamel and faster cavity development, even if your child diligently brushes and flosses their teeth each day. To help your child learn to avoid eating too much sugar in their foods and beverages, it’s important to teach them what they should eat, instead, to help promote healthier, cavity-free teeth for life. (more…)
A Guide to Healthier At-Home Snacks for Kids
When you think of keeping your child’s smile healthy, good dental hygiene may be the first thing that comes to mind. While it’s important, however, hygiene isn’t the only thing your child needs to maintain a healthy smile. During this time when all of us are spending much more time at home, we take a look at a few ways you can use the time to introduce a healthier snacking routine for your children, and help improve their oral health by improving the quality of their nutrition. (more…)
Answers About Calcium, When Dairy Is Off The Table
Calcium. You know that you need it and you know your children need it, too. However, when your lifestyle doesn’t include dairy, you may find yourself wondering if you’re going to be able to provide your child with the nutrition necessary for optimal oral health (and how). Maybe your child is lactose intolerant or has a dairy allergy. Perhaps your family follows a plant-based way of eating! While you may have heard varying opinions about your concern, our Dallas, TX team (and certainly your pediatrician) can happily fill you in on the information you need about the ever-important calcium, when dairy is simply off the table!
Smile Protection: How To Manage Sweets This Time Of Year
Is there any time of year when your kids aren’t feeling super interested in sweets? Not really. However, it is fair to say that as the colder weather and holidays begin to approach, we are faced with what feels like an enormous onslaught of all-things-sugary-all-the-time. What makes this the case, you ask yourself in reflection? Well, candy and pastries are feel-good treats and end up at the center of the holidays. They are snacks shared in the classroom, frequent gifts, part of holiday meals, time-honored traditions (Halloween, for instance), and there seems to be no end in sight. So, how to manage from now through Valentine’s Day, as you continue considering smile protection, without totally taking sweet treats away from the kiddos? Our Dallas, TX team has a very simple answer: Add xylitol into the mix!
Xylitol: So Many Times When You Can Enjoy It!
What’s xylitol, you ask? Why, allow our Dallas, TX pediatric practice offer you some very interesting facts: It’s a sweetener that’s all natural. It also happens to be good, not bad, for your oral health (which means, when your kids consume it, you don’t have to feel frantic like you do with other sources of sweetness, such as sugar, which promotes decay). While you may have heard of it and know that it’s something you can access, you might not really know what types of products it’s used in, when it’s a good idea, and where to get it. We can help!
The Stuff You Can’t Believe Your Kids Eat
You’ve seen it. Candy that looks like toothpaste. Cookies in flavors you can’t imagine wanting. Super sour stuff that kids compete over, seeing who can withstand the discomfort! Trends come and go with your kids and their friends and sometimes, you don’t know what to do about it because you’re a bit beside yourself. You certainly wouldn’t touch it, so how to react? Not to worry. Focus on keeping your kids’ oral health safe and the rest will change as they get older. For now, try some tips.
At The Movies: Navigating Snacks
Yes, it can become easier and easier to guide your children toward snacks that are better for their oral health over time when you’re in the comfort of your own home. Heading out to the movie theater, however, can bring with it a very different set of expectations from the kiddos. If you’re on board when it comes to snacking while you watch but you’d like to maintain some level of protection for smiles, think through some easy advice.
Smile-Friendly Fall Favorites: Fun With Orange!
It’s always worth discussing the colorful, natural foods out there that can help protect your child’s smile. As you know, kids are quite fond of colorful foods, holiday themes, and anything that tends to make eating fun. If you’re feeling out of ideas and a little overwhelmed by the influx of candy and confections this fall season, then consider something that is sure to creates some enjoyment, while protecting your kids’ oral health: Eating orange! It’s seasonally appropriate and your kids just might think it’s cool.
How To Get Your Kids To Drink More Water!
Worried that your kids aren’t drinking enough water? Wondering what you can do about this, since handing a glass of water to your child never garners the same kind of awe and attention as when you hand over a milkshake or glass of juice? The good news is that you’re right about H20! It’s very beneficial to your child’s oral health. As for how to up how much your little one drinks every day without too much effort, we have some helpful ideas.