Sugar is absolutely everywhere, and although that might sound like a good thing at first – it is tasty, after all – when you think more about the damage it can do to your health, including your teeth, you’ll soon realize that it’s something you need to avoid as much as possible.
That also means it’s something your children need to avoid as much as possible, and that can sometimes be a difficult thing to do – as we said, sugar is everywhere. However, there are some useful tips to help you at least reduce your child’s sugar intake, and it’s well worth looking into what they are so you can put them into action. Keep reading to find out more.
Visit The Dentist Regularly
There are many things you can do to help your children consume less sugar, and we’ll talk about a few in this post, but the first thing to do is to make sure you have a good dentist and visit them regularly as a family.
These important, regular check-ups are ideal as they’ll help to reinforce what you’re telling your children about sugar (sometimes hearing it from an authority figure who isn’t a parent can help it sink in more easily), and it can be great because if there are any problems with the teeth (sugar-related or not), they’ll be picked up more quickly and treated before they can become too much of an issue.
Limit Sugary Treats
If you want your child to eat less sugar, you’ll clearly need to limit the number of sugary treats they have, so it’s wise to make some rules about this. Work out when these kinds of treats are acceptable (it’s usually best to allow them sometimes because otherwise, as they get older, they might start eating too many to find out what they missed out on when they were growing up) and stick to that plan. When you make sugary snacks more of a rare treat, it becomes special, and it won’t become an everyday habit.
To make up for the fact that you don’t have sugary snacks in the house, make sure you have some great alternatives, perhaps homemade treats instead. In fact, if you decide to do this, you can control exactly what goes into them, and perhaps your child can help you make them too.
Read The Labels
You might think it would be easy to stop your child from eating too much sugar – just don’t give them sugary snacks and drinks. However, it’s actually much harder than that because there is sugar in a lot of food that you might not have thought about, so you might be giving your children sugar without realizing it.
That’s why you need to make sure you read the labels on the food you’re buying to see how much sugar is in them – you might be surprised by the results. You can then decide what you think is a safe and reasonable amount and perhaps start buying alternatives to the food that contains a lot of sugar to keep your kids’ teeth and overall health in the best condition.