A healthy school lunch can help maintain good oral health and establish good nutritional habits in kids and teenagers. The following tips can help you learn how to prepare a lunch that best meets your child’s dental and nutritional needs.
- For snacks, send fruits, vegetables or cheese in your child’s lunchbox.
- The best fruit choices are those containing more water, such as: apples, grapes, pears, cantaloupes, and other melons.
- Any type of aged cheese is a good choice, such as: Swiss, Cheddar or Monterey Jack. You can also use cookie cutters to cut the cheese into fun shapes. Some studies have suggested that aged cheese can actually help to prevent tooth decay.
- Raw broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cucumbers and celery are excellent vegetable choices.
- Try some different healthy foods or low carb snacks that your children may like.
The following foods are sticky and/or chewy and should be avoided because they stick to the teeth and saliva is unable to wash the sugar away.
- Raisins
- Honey
- Dried figs
- Peanut butter cookies
- Jelly beans
- Lollipops
- Hard candy
We cannot follow our children around all the time to make sure they are eating healthy and brushing their teeth, but we can have some peace of mind knowing that we are helping to promote good oral health by providing them with their nutritional needs while they are at school.
Thank you for reading. I encourage you to leave comments or questions below. For more information on my practice, please visit www.elitesacramentodentist.com
Your friendly dentist,
Dr. Sarah Po
August 18, 2010
Source: http://dentistry.about.com/od/childrensdentistry/a/kidsnutrition.htm
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