In the Know for You to Know
The holidays spirit is in the air! Spending time enjoying family, friends and food is here. Chocolate, candy, cookies, and cake are everywhere.
Mostly everything our children eat this time of year is tied to tradition, especially the sweets. As parents we want to create new memories and enjoy family traditions.
This is also a great time to start new family traditions to help your children maintain healthy tooth habits even during your hectic holiday schedule.
Strive For Moderation
We’ve all heard this from our own parents. You can enjoy everything but everything in moderation.
But why is this especially true for sugary and starchy foods?
Holiday time with big family meals and lots of special foods and tons of deserts increase the number of times children are eating sweets.
The natural bacteria in their mouth also love all those sugary and starchy foods. As they do this, the bacteria release acids that eat away at tooth enamel. Eating away at the enamel causes cavities.
So what to do? When you’re planning your entertaining and festive meals, make sure your child’s other meals (like breakfast and lunch) and snacks are full of foods that help strengthen teeth, like fresh vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy and lean protein.
If you’ve been invited out for the holidays, stock your own refrigerator and kitchen cabinets with healthy food. This way you’ll know that when you’re at home, your child is enjoying foods with less sugar and important nutrients.
New Twists On The Classics
Family time together with home made cookies and hot chocolate is the best. With minor alterations in the recipe these special treats can be even better.
Instead of using all purpose flour, perhaps you can find a recipe that replaces some of the regular flour with whole wheat flour. Maybe you experiment to see how much frosting, icing, sprinkles, jimmies and sugar decorations you can remove from your baked goods and your children and guests will still absolutely love them.
There’s something so special about drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows when it’s cold outside. Maybe instead of mixing up the pre-packaged mixes (which are loaded with sugar), you make it from scratch. This way you can keep the hot chocolate on the yummy side but not the sugary sweet side. Or maybe you’ll add a dash of cinnamon. Remember, that peppermint stick candy is just for decoration.
Make Brushing And Flossing A Priority
Set aside a dedicated time each morning after breakfast and each night before bed devoted especially for you and your children as together time, and to and reinforce good brushing and flossing habits.
Making oral hygiene even more of a priority during the holidays can help go a long way in protecting your child’s teeth.
Remember to brush your child’s teeth with a fluoride toothpaste for 2 minutes in the morning and 2 minutes before bed, and floss before their bed time brushing. Use an age appropriate amount of fluoride toothpaste on their toothbrush — that’s a rice grain size or smear for children younger than 3 years old, and a pea size amount for children between 3 and 6 years old.
If you’re traveling for the holidays, pack all your children’s brushing supplies in your luggage before you head out on the road. Check List: toothbrush, toothpaste, floss.
Avoid Grazing While Enjoying Family Time
Spending time together in the kitchen enjoying all the cooking and baking, or at the table reminiscing after a luxurious meal is so heart warming.
But it’s actually not that great for teeth.
The first 30 minutes after eating are the most vulnerable time for teeth. This is when they are the most susceptible to those bacterial acids. So eating a cookie here, grabbing a candy there, actually restarts the clock each time. It’s really better to eat and drink all at once. If your child is having their one special juice or soda, it’s best for them to drink it with their meal so that it gets neutralized by their saliva.
Give Some Tooth-Friendly Holiday Gifts
Including a few tooth friendly gifts into your holiday gift mix is a good way towards keeping your child’s teeth healthy during the holidays and afterwards.
Gift Tips —
Cool character toothbrush, cool color toothbrush, tempting flavored toothpaste, travel-size dental kit, fun brushing timers, flavored floss, or an electric toothbrush for an older child.
Encourage Drinking Water
Drinking water helps to wash away the residual food that stays around in the mouth as we eat and after we eat. Water also helps to stimulate more saliva to be released into the mouth, both of which neutralize the pH in the mouth.
This is a good thing because there isn’t any sugar in water, so it then goes on to also help neutralize the acid caused by bacteria in the mouth.
Drinking water is always a good idea, whether it’s with a meal, after a meal, instead of juice and soda, or after a sugary drink. An added bonus is that water keeps everyone hydrated.
The holidays are hectic enough. Helping you child brush like a champ, and being watchful about the amount of sugary treats they eat and drink during the festivities and downtime at home, and keeping up with their regular dental check-ups goes a long way to happy mouths and bright smiles for all.
Cavity bugs love to eat sugar and teeth. When do you think is their most favorite time of the year? Tell us what you think. We’d really like to know. Send us an email at kidstoothhotline@proton.me Like Us on Facebook at facebook,com/kidstoothhotline
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