What is a healthy diet for my child?
A healthy diet is a balanced diet that naturally supplies all the nutrients your child needs to grow. A balanced diet is one that includes the following major food groups:
-Fruit
-Vegetables
-Grains
-Meat and Beans
-Milk
How does my children's diet affect their dental health?
They must have a balanced diet for their teeth to develop properly and for healthy gums. A diet high in certain kids of carbohydrates, such as sugar and starches, may place your child at high risk for tooth deay.
How do I make my children's diet safe for their teeth?
Provide your children with a balanced diet. Monitor how frequently they eat foods with sugar or starch in them. Foods with starch include breads, crackers, pasta, pretzels and potato chips. When checking for sugar, look beyond the sugar bowl and candy dish. A variety of foods contain one or more types of sugar, and all types of sugars can result in cavities. Fruits, some vegetables, and most milk products have at lease one type of sugar. Sugar can be found in many processed food, even some that do not taste sweet.
Should my child give up all foods with sugar or starch?
Absolutely not! Many of these foods provide nutrients your child needs. You simply need to select and serve them wisely. A food with sugar or starch is safer for teeth if it is eaten with a meal, not a snack. Sticky foods, such as dried fruit or toffee, are not easily washed away from the teeth by saliva or water. Therefore, they have more cavity-causing potential than foods more rapidly cleared from the teeth. Talk to your dentist about selecting and serving foods that protect your child's dental health.
My baby isn't on solid foods yet. Do you have any suggestions for him?
Do not nurse a young child to sleep or put him to bed with a bottle of milk, formula, juice, or sweetened liquid. While a child sleeps, any unswallowed liquid in the mouth feeds bacteria that produce acids and attack the teeth. Protect your child from severe tooth decay by putting him to bed with nothing more than a pacifier or bottle of water.
