Dental care: information for parents
Sack the sugar
Refined sugar (sucrose) causes tooth decay.
Jamie Oliver showed us just how much rubbish is put into children's school meals without our knowledge. The same is true of sugar in processed foods. Just as a test go to your nearest supermarket and check the packaging to see how many foods you can find that do not contain sugar. If the packet says "carbohydrates" then the chances are it contains sucrose. When we rely so much on processed foods it is virtually impossible to totally avoid refined sugar so the only thing we can try and do is to try and control it.
What can we do?
- Always check the packaging of processed foods. That means everything from baked beans and breakfast cereal to biscuits and cakes.
- Choose the ones that do not contain sugar or keep the ones that do to an absolute minimum.
Beat the sweets
The most damaging type of sugar is the sticky kind which stays in the mouth the longest. Sticky sugar is commonly found in sweets and toffees. Children become addicted to sweets not just because they taste sweet but more importantly because they are associated with comfort and reward. They also get addicted to the “high” of the energy rush and that can cause disruptive behavioural problems. Controlling sugar and sweets at nursery can help in maintaining order.What can we do?
- Avoid sweets, toffees and chocolate as far as possible.
- Reward children with fruit or small inexpensive toys. Remember they are more important as tokens of praise and affection than of sweet treats.
