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5 Tips to Keep Your Kids Teeth Healthy During the Holidays
Posted by Dr. Julie Boudreault On 20-10-2021
There’s nothing you love more in this world than your children. They are almost certainly the light of your life and one of the reasons you get up in the morning and do the things you end up doing every day.
But they’re also young and don’t understand the importance of health and taking care of themselves. It’s likely something they won’t realize until much later.
So the responsibility to take care of them falls on you, and fundamental to that care is ensuring they have a set of healthy teeth ready to stand the wear and tear of the future life stretching out so far ahead of them.
But if you’re not sure where to start, why not read here? We’ll walk you through some of the key things you can do to take care of them.
Limit the Sweets and Acids
This is perhaps the most obvious and important thing you can do. Simply put, you must try to keep them away from too many sweet or acidic things.
These can wear down enamel rather easily and cause long-term issues with cavities and the like.
So, give them a healthy and balanced diet, saving the treats just for special occasions.
It can be hard because they’re so tasty, but limiting sugar intake and consumption is a great thing for their oral and physical health and is not something you should ignore.
Build Good Habits
What’s even better than watching over them all the time and making sure they do everything right is to have them take care of their teeth, so you don’t have to worry about them.
Building up good habits is something that will pay dividends for many, many years to come.
So get your kids in the habit of flossing and brushing their teeth regularly, perhaps rewarding them with non-teeth-destructive things like more television time or some supervised play.
The more you do this, the better they will get at it, to the point where they can fly high all on their own.
Choose The Right Products
It doesn’t make sense to go to all this effort if you’re not even making sure that your kids use the right toothpaste and mouthwash?
Using products without fluoride is a waste of time, so make sure to choose products with these ingredients, and no other harmful ones, like bleach.
If you need more guidance as to what type of product your kids should be using, you can always pop in and ask for the professional help of the dentists at Milltown Dental.
Change What You Make Them
Another great thing to do that’s fully in your control is to change what you make them. That is to say. You can carefully finetune your recipes for maximum oral health.
For instance, during the holiday seasons, particularly Halloween, why not try swapping out your sweet treats with something else entirely. For example, you could give them soft cheese with some honey and nuts to still hit the right flavour notes or swap out a milk chocolate recipe with a dark one to reduce sugar intake.
Even the recipes they currently love can likely be fine tuned to be healthier for them. You don’t have to throw out the baby with the bathwater here. If your recipes call for sugar, why not try using half of the amount indicated? Or use sweet potato, pumpkin, and savoury fruits to give it that same kick. You can also swap out regular wheat flour with whole-grain flour.
Balancing all of this out is a healthy and consistent amount of liquid. While it’s easy to slip into the habit of constantly drinking soda and other sugary delights, it makes more sense instead to replace these corrosive drinks with something all-natural, like water.
Drinking more water has many benefits, but it can protect against the acids that bacteria produce on your teeth, preventing serious tooth decay in the long and short-term.
Remember that your kids will follow the examples you set and the choices you give to them. So make sure to follow these habits, too and watch as they learn and become the healthiest little angels you’ve ever seen.
Dental Check-Ups
Another obvious thing to do is get their teeth checked out by a professional, catching any misses or mistakes you otherwise might have missed.
Some pediatric dentists know exactly what to do to make the experience comfortable and appealing for your children.
Just like it makes sense for you to go to the dentist regularly, try to bring your kids on an annual basis at-least. This will ensure that any dental problems are quickly identified and addressed in their early stages while providing a level of professional dental cleaning that will help keep your kids teeth healthy all year round.
Closing Thoughts
There’s a lot you can do to help your kids maintain good oral hygiene and health. And the vast majority of it is under your control. Make sure they don’t eat sweets and unhealthy things, set an example, create good habits, and on top of everything, take advantage of professional guidance and treatment to keep everything at 100%.
It can be difficult to keep kids under control at the best of times. But when you’re trying to take care of their health, dental or otherwise, difficulties can escalate even more as they fail to understand or appreciate the importance of what you’re doing/want to do for them.
Thankfully you don’t have to tackle this complex and tiring problem alone. There are articles like this one and even better professionals who can treat and help you take care of the kids you love so much.
If you need a family dentist in Milton, call Milltown Dental at 833-318-3281 or contact us here.
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