Triangle Pediatric Dentistry - Wake Forest, NC

Diet

One of the best ways to keep your child cavity free is to maintain a proper diet.  Cavities are caused by bacteria that feed off of sugar and starches to produce acid that attacks your teeth.  Any foods that are high in sugar or starches are potential cavity causing culprits!   Also consider the drinks that your child is drinking.  Many drinks are high in sugar or have acid in them and can do a lot of harm to baby teeth, or any teeth for that matter.  Below are some helpful hints on ways to monitor your child’s diet.  Most importantly though, make sure you follow any special dietary instruction that your child’s physician gives you.   If you have questions about the dental implications of a physician mandated diet then make sure to contact our office so Dr. Buddy or Dr. Porter can discuss the dental implications of your child’s diet.

Drinks  

• The best plan for what your children should drink is that they should drink milk or water with meals and water between meals.   We understand that most children are not going to only drink milk or water all of the time.   However, as outlined below be mindful of the harmful effects that many of the other drinks can have.  Stick to milk and water as much as possible and only let your children have other types of drinks for special occasions.  Also, make sure that your children do not drink anything except water at night after their teeth have been brushed.
• One drink in particular that many parents do not realize is harmful is juice.  Juice (even 100% natural juice) is high in sugar and is probably the leading cause of cavities that we see in our office.  Even if “watered down”, frequent consumption of juice can still cause cavities.   We recommend that children only have one small 6 oz cup of juice a daily if any at all.   Juice should be consumed with a meal or with a snack to help buffer the sugar intake.  Juice is the most dangerous for causing cavities when a child is sipping on it throughout the day in a bottle or sippie cup.  This gives the dangerous combination of too much total sugar consumption as well as a high frequency of sugar consumption.  It is also very important that children are not allowed to drink juice (or any drink besides water) after they have brushed their teeth at night and are also not allowed to sleep with a bottle or sippie cup containing juice.
• Children should only receive soft drinks for special occasions, if at all.  They have a lot of sugar and are acidic and cavity promoting.  Even diet drinks are acidic and contain many ingredients that are not ideal for your child to consume.   Soft drinks, including diet soft drinks, should not be included in a child’s diet.
• Sports drinks are not healthy!  They contain a lot of sugars that can cause cavities!  Beware of the “reduced sugar” versions of sports drinks.  They still contain a lot of sugar and are still very cavity promoting. 
• Sweet tea and Kool Aid (and drinks similar to Kool Aid) contain a lot of sugar and are not good for your children’s teeth.
• Many children with health issues are small and physicians recommend Pediasure to gain weight.  Pediasure is high in calories, vitamins and sugar.  Parents of a child that consumes Pediasure should be sure to maintain oral hygiene daily and try to not let their child drink Pediasure throughout the day and night.

Snacks

• It is very important to develop a feeding schedule for your child.  It is best for small children to have three meals a day as well as a mid-morning and afternoon snack.  Constant snacking between meals should be avoided.   A lot of snacking between meals increases the frequency with which harmful foods can be in contact with your children’s teeth and thus increases the likelihood that your children could develop cavities.   
• Snacks that are the best for your children to eat are those high in protein such as peanut butter, chesse, yogurt, etc.  Raw Fruits and vegetables are also very good snacks for children to have.
• Beware snack foods that are sticky.  These foods can stick to the chewing surfaces or between the teeth and cause cavities.   In particular, be careful with dried fruits such as raisins.  They are very sticky and dried fruits have high sugar content.   Dried fruits and raisins are   alright to snack on occasionally but just make sure that your children’s teeth are brushed soon afterwards.
• Beware of reduced fat and low sugar processed snacks.  These products are usually lower in sugar than the normal products but still very high in sugar themselves.   These snacks are typically very starchy as well and the starches will be turned into sugar once they begin being digested by your children’s saliva.