The number of tooth extractions in toddlers (aged four and under) has risen by a quarter in 10 years and by 18% for children aged nine and under. These are astonishing and hugely worrying statistics, so what steps can you take to reduce dental decay in your children?
Good oral health requires more than just effective dental hygiene, such as tooth brushing and regular visits to the dentist, nutrition is also key. A good diet can build healthy teeth and help you to stay healthy in general. Here, I share my three top suggestions of how you can improve and protect your child’s dental health…
1. Vitamin D
Vitamin D supplements should form a part of your child’s diet between the ages of six months and five years old. You can also take them if you are pregnant, as children born to mothers deficient in the vitamin are prone to tooth decay/cavities.
This is in line with Government advice which also says that the over 65s and breastfeeding women can benefit from taking the supplement. Vitamin D helps you to absorb calcium and phosphate from food and it has a role to play in forming dentine and enamel in the teeth. You can check vitamin D levels by taking a simple blood test at your GP surgery.
2. Limit sugar
A child’s added sugar consumption should be limited to a maximum of six teaspoons (24g) per day. You need to check labels on food and drink and remember that free sugars, those that naturally occur in fruit and vegetables, are different to intrinsic sugars.
Again, this guideline is in accordance with Government advice which also recommends that for maximum benefit this should be halved to three teaspoons a day. Unfortunately, there may still be some way to go to achieving this as the Government National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008–12 reveals that children aged four to ten years ate a mean of 14 teaspoons of sugar (56g) every day.
To help you see how much sugar, saturated fat and salt is lurking in your children’s food, Change4Life by Public Health England have developed an app which will make it easier for you and your family to make healthier choices when it comes to food and drink. The app allows you to scan the barcode of the product to see how much sugar it contains and also gives you some handy sugar swap alternatives!
3. Choose unprocessed
As well as cutting out sweet treats and drinks directly, you also need to be aware of the hidden sugars that are found in processed food. These can often be found in food that looks healthy, such as yoghurts, ‘healthy’ snack bars, condiments and soups.
Ideally a child’s diet should come from unprocessed foods without an ingredients list, for example, vegetables, fish and lean meats, nuts, seeds, fruit, water or herbal teas as a main drink, with occasional watered-down fruit juices (50/50) or very weak cordials. However, that can be a challenge for some people in today’s processed food era, so you need to be vigilant in checking the sugar content in the ingredients label of these products as much as possible.
By following these three simple tips you can make big changes, to give your child a healthier mouth, and a healthier body too!
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