The American Dental Association recommends a diet that follos the USDA Food Guide Pyramid. As parents, we must carefully balance our child’s dietary needs for optimum growth and health.  We should also consider how our food choices affect our child’s dental health. 

            You are all aware that sugars ca cause decay.  Fewer people are aware that any carbohydrate can cause decay.  When we eat carbohydrates, they are broken down into their smaller molecules, which are sugars.  So, a snack of little fish-shaped crackers could be almost as dangerous as a cup of chocolate chips (I’m exaggerating, of course, but you get the point.  Following the food Pyramid guidelines will lead to a healthy body, but ca wreak havoc on the teeth if not used wisely.

            To make good food choice decisions for your child, it helps to understand the “20 minute rule”.   This means that when you eat sugar or carbohydrate, the pH, or acidity, of you salvia goes from neutral to acidic.  It takes about twenty minutes for your saliva to buffer itself back up to neutral.  Those twenty minutes are when the bacteria are causing demineralization, or decay.  The amount of decay is directly correlated to the amount and frequency of exposure to acid. You can shorten the twenty minutes by following the food with vigorous swishing with water and  / or brushing.  Some research suggests that chewing sugar-free gum can help also.

            If a toddler eats four meals a day with milk, and snacks on only water, he will only be in the “danger zone” 80 minutes a day.  This is considered to be safe, so long as you thoroughly brush and floss his teeth before bed.

            If, however, a toddler eats three meals a day, has five snacks, and unlimited access to milk and juice, he could spend as much as five hours in the danger zone, and that spells trouble!

            To summarize:

1.  Limit snacking.  Snacks should be protein-based, not carbohydrate.

2.  Each meal and snack should have a beginning and an end.  Do not allow your toddler to “graze”.

3.  A small amount of fruit juice is fine, but again, this treat should have a beginning and an end.  Fruit juice contains a sugar, fructose.  It can do the same damage as table sugar, sucrose. He should be allowed to drink the juice for 10 minutes or so, and then it should be removed from reach.  Don’t let him walk around with unlimited access all day.  For more info, see the ADA link for “Baby Bottle Tooth Decay”.  Yes, it can occur to five year olds, and yes it can occur years after your child has been weaned from the bottle! I’ve even seen teenagers with this decay pattern.  In their case it could be called “Adolescent Soda Pop Decay”!

4. Limit the amount and the number of times each day that your child has exposure to sugars and carbohydrates.

5. Think carefully about what snacks you are offering. Try to avoid snacks that contain sugars or carbohydrates, or are sticky.  For example, raisins may be healthy but they are notorious for causing decay.  Offer raisins, but limit the time the child has to eat them, then brush his teeth.  Instead of peanut butter (high in sugar!) and crackers (sticky), try a stick of cheese and a Vienna sausage.  Instead of juice, offer an apple.  Instead of the fish-shaped crackers, offer yogurt.

Read those ingredient labels.  You will be surprised how many “nutritious” snacks you offer list sugar or corn syrup as the first or second ingredient!

6.  Lastly, encourage your child to swish with water after every snack.  Brush after breakfast and brush and floss the last thing before bed.