Eat Your Fruit, Don't Drink

Children need to eat fruits instead of drinking them. Most people think that fruit juice is a convenient way to get all the health benefits compared to eating whole fruit. However, fruit juice contains high amounts of sugar and tooth damaging acid, causing cavities. In comparison, whole fruit offers fibre and other nutrients beneficial for health.

Sometimes, parents also urge their children to drink juice easily found in any store. However, it is advisable to avoid letting your children drink juice and better focus on the benefits of eating fruits. Water is the best choice for hydrating kids. Moreover, children should avoid electrolyte drinks containing high acid levels and are usually unhelpful for children.

• Mothers should only breastfeed infants whenever possible until they are six months old and continue for a year or more.
• Do not offer the juice in a bottle or toddler cup to children. In addition, don't even allow children to sleep with a bottle or toddler cup containing other forms of liquid but not water. By allowing children unlimited access to juice in cups and bottles, high levels of acid build-up in the mouth will lead to a much higher risk of tooth decay, increasing more significant amounts of decay and the rate at which the decay spreads.
• If you want to include juice in the diet, buy "100% juice" labelled products because beverages that are not marked as 100% juice often contain "drink", "beverage", or "Cocktails" on the label which usually have added sugar and other ingredients.
• Give children pasteurized juices, as unpasteurized juices may contain germs that put toddlers at risk of getting sick.

Your Saraswati Dental College team is here to help!

We are proud to be well-known pediatric dental experts in Saraswati Dental College and Hospital. We are here to help you and your child adjust to their new world of dentist visits in any way that we can. If you think it would be helpful to introduce your child to our team before their appointment, please let us know and we are happy to make that happen. You and your child are in great hands with our trusted team and don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions. If you’re ready to schedule your child’s visit, let’s get started!