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As your baby begins eating solid food, it can be tough to plan a diet that’s convenient and healthy for their teeth. The market is oversaturated with choices, and just about every baby food producer can make a compelling argument for their product. However, there are certain foods that are markedly better than others, and most share one important trait: they’re whole fruits and vegetables. Below are a few of the best foods for babies just beginning to eat solids.

Bananas

Bananas are often one of the first foods that parents introduce to their children as they incorporate solids into their diet. Bananas are sweet, and full of vitamins and nutrients that make it a mouth-healthy power food. They contain Vitamin C, which helps promote healthy gums. Bananas are also high in fiber, and low in sodium, cholesterol and saturated fat. Bananas do contain sugar, though, so be sure to wipe your baby’s mouth clean and give them plenty of water after they eat one.

Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are dental super foods that can be easily added to a baby’s diet. This fantastic root vegetable contains a high amount of Vitamin A, which promotes healthy teeth and gums. Vitamin A helps maintain the mucous membrane and soft tissue in gums, and also promotes the formation of tooth enamel by helping the body produce keratin – a protein vital to producing tooth enamel. We suggest peeling and boiling sweet potatoes and making them into a soft mash for your child to easily eat.

Avocados

Did you know that Avocados are technically a single-seed berry? Avocados are nutrient-dense fruits that provide a lot of mouth-healthy benefits. They’re packed with B Vitamins, which helps prevent gum disease. They contain Vitamin C, which boosts overall gum health, and they contain folate, which helps repair mouths damaged by gum disease. Because of their soft consistency, Avocados are easy for babies to eat. We suggest spooning out the flesh of the avocado, and mashing it up to make it easy for your child to eat. Avocados are a great healthy snack for hungry babies!

Winter Squash

Winter Squash refers to a family of squash which includes Butternut, Acorn, Spaghetti, and Calabaza Squash. The Winter Squash family contains a lot of vitamins and minerals that promote oral health. Each type of squash is high in calcium, which strengthens teeth and helps fight gum disease. Winter Squash also contains Vitamin C, which boosts overall gum health. To serve Winter Squash, we suggest cutting into half, removing the seeds, and baking until soft. Then, blend the squash so that your bay can easily eat it.

Visit our Office

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry advises parents to establish a dental home for their children before their first birthday. Usually, a child’s first tooth will appear between 6 and 10 months of age, which makes it the perfect time to establish a dental home. As pediatric dentists, we specialize in caring for children and making them feel comfortable in our office. This helps them create a positive association with the dentist, which can ward off future anxiety when visiting our office. Schedule an appointment today, and take the first step to earning your child a healthy smile that grows with them.

Thanksgiving is here, and with it comes a swath of seasonal treats that are usually enjoyed just once a year. Besides visiting family, Thanksgiving is a time for eating, and eating well. As your family enjoys this time together, keep your eyes out for a few Thanksgiving dishes that can harm your teeth, and turn your relaxing time off into a real tooth-ache.

Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry sauce is a Thanksgiving staple in many households, and seldom appears on dinner tables outside of turkey day. Despite its tart deliciousness, cranberry sauce is packed with sugar and offers little nutritional value at all. In fact, one of the most popular choices for cranberry sauce –canned cranberry sauce – has 121 grams of sugar per can, and no protein or fiber at all. All of that sugar provides nourishment and energy to bad oral bacteria that cause cavities.

As an alternative, try finding a recipe that calls for fresh cranberries, so that you can control the amount of sugar your family consumes this holiday season.

Stuffing

Stuffing is another Thanksgiving classic that can really harm teeth. That’s because most stuffing recipes revolve around bread. Starches like bread provide cavity-causing bacteria the energy they need to chip away at tooth enamel. Additionally, starches can be very sticky and stay on teeth long after a meal has finished, and cause further damage. The high amount of starch sadly makes stuffing unhealthy for teeth. Combined with the fact that stuffing is full of carbohydrates and lacks dense nutritional value, and you begin running out of reasons to eat it.

Try getting your stuffing fix by making a tooth-healthy breadless stuffing that uses beans instead of bread as a base! Beans are full of protein and fiber, which makes it a much healthier replacement for bread in stuffing recipes.

Fruit Cake

A seasonal favorite that appears on tables between Thanksgiving and Christmas, fruitcake sounds like it would be a healthy treat, the word “fruit” is right in the name after all! Unfortunately, fruitcake is full dried fruit, which can really damage teeth. Dried fruit contains much higher levels of sugar than their natural counterparts, and none of the water that helps make fruit so healthy. Dried fruit is also very sticky, and can stay on teeth longer after a meal in done. The sugar and the sticky consistency make fruitcake a no-no for healthy teeth. If you are looking for an alternative, you can make a fresh fruit crumble, which has much less sugar and isn’t nearly as sticky.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet potatoes can be a dental super food that provide valuable vitamins for tooth and gum health, but when prepared improperly, anything can be unhealthy. This is the case for sweet potato casserole, a dish that packs an unhealthy punch to teeth. Most sweet potato casseroles are made to be sweet dishes, rather than savory, and feature a layer of melted marshmallows on top. Because of this, they are loaded with added sugar, which hurts their nutritional value. Marshmallows are particularly bad for teeth, since they are packed with sugar and incredibly sticky – two components that can lead to tooth decay and cavities.

If you really want sweet potato casserole this Thanksgiving, try making a more savory recipe that doesn’t add sugar or marshmallows. Sweet potatoes can be great for oral health, when they’re not drenched in sugar.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving

Whatever you decide to make your family for Thanksgiving dinner, we hope that you have a happy and wonderful holiday. Remind your family to brush twice per day for two minutes per session, and floss once per day to help keep cavities at bay this holiday season.

Has your child ever come to you with bleeding gums? If so, there are a number causes that could be the culprit, but the one to watch out for is gum disease. Below, we discuss some common causes of bleeding gums, and when it’s time for your child to visit the dentist.

New Toothbrush

A new toothbrush with firm bristles can sometimes cause gums bleed. If you just bought your child a new toothbrush, check the bristles to see how firm they are, or look on the package to see what types of bristles it has. You should always buy toothbrushes with soft bristles, which clean as well as firm bristles, and are much easier on gums and teeth. Additionally, make sure your child isn’t brushing their teeth with too much pressure, which can also cause bleeding and damage sensitive gums.

Medications

Certain medications can cause gums to become inflamed and extra sensitive, which can make them more susceptible to bleeding. If your child has just started a new regiment of medications, then they might be the culprit. Make sure they stick to their medication routine, but have them be gentler when they brush so that they don’t irritate their sensitive gums.

New Flossing Routine

If your child has just started flossing, then they will most likely experience some minor bleeding. This is because deep crevices in the gums are incredibly sensitive and are easily agitated when someone begins a new flossing routine. Bleeding gums caused by flossing usually subsides in about a week. Visit our office If your child is experiencing bleeding gums for more than one week after beginning flossing, since this may indicate a more serious problem that requires treatment.

Gum Disease

If your child has gums that bleed easily, or that are red, swollen and tender, then they may have gum disease. Gum disease can be caused by a number of factors, but it is most commonly associated with poor oral hygiene. Also called periodontal disease, gum disease is also caused by excessive plaque buildup. The best to keep gum disease away from your child is a good oral health routine. Make sure that they are brushing twice daily for two minutes at a time and that they floss once per day.

Visit Our Office

If your child has bleeding gums that last more than one week then visit our office so that we can prescribe a proper treatment plan. Gums that bleed for more than a week often indicate some form of gum disease that needs to be treated by a pediatric dentist. Visit our office today to help your child get healthier gums, and a smile that they’re proud to share.

Did you know that just over 25% of candy purchased in America each year is bought at Halloween? For children, Halloween is all about dressing up with their friends, and bagging as much candy as they can get. But, how are those sweets affecting your child’s teeth? Today, we’ll look at some of the best – and worst – Halloween candy for teeth.

The Bad

Hard Candy

Hard candy is very popular, and comes in nearly every flavor and size imaginable. But, be vigilant when letting your child eat hard candy, because it can crack their teeth. Hard candy also tends to stick around longer than other candy, which exposes teeth to sugar for longer. Extended contact with sugar can lead to more cavities because sugar provides bad bacteria with the energy it needs to destroy enamel.

Sticky Candy

Like hard candy, sticky candy can get stuck in tooth crevices and stay around long after it’s been swallowed. Sticky candy is difficult to remove from teeth, and gives cavity-causing bacteria more time to eat away enamel.

Sour Candy

Sour candy can leave teeth susceptible to cavities more so than any other candy. This is because sour candy contains a high amount of acid. In fact, the elevated acid content is what makes it so sour. The acidity can eat away the enamel of teeth, and leave them vulnerable to cavities.

The Good

Dark Chocolate

Chocolate is a better sweet option this Halloween, since it washes away easier than other candy, and is less destructive to enamel. But, dark chocolate is the best type of chocolate for oral health because it contains less sugar than milk chocolate and can actually help keep cavities away! That’s because it contains a flavanoid called epicatechin. Epicatechin has shown to slow tooth decay and also reduces cholesterol, blood clots and clogged arteries.

Dark chocolate also contains polyphenols, which are naturally occurring chemicals that limit bad oral that attacks your teeth. The polyphenols in dark chocolate also reduce bad breath!

Candy Bars with Nuts

Regular candy bars aren’t the best things for your teeth, and depending upon their ingredients, can be very sticky and damaging to teeth. This is why you should look for candy bars that have a lot of nuts in them: the nuts break up the sticky consistency, and leave sugar on teeth for far less time than candy bars without nuts. We like the KIND Bar with Almonds and Macadamia nuts as a tooth-friendly sweet treat. Just remember to have our kids brush their teeth after consuming them, because debris can get left in their mouth afterwards.

Gum Sweetened with Xylitol

Gum sweetened with Xylitol is a great treat to give away at Halloween, and can actually help young trick-or-treaters clean their teeth. Xylitol sweetened gum is sugarless, and stimulates saliva production which naturally cleans teeth of debris and leftover sugar.

Remember to Brush Twice Daily

It’s important that your children brush their teeth twice per day for two minutes at a time if you want to keep cavities away. This is especially important when consuming foods that contain high amounts of sugar. So, as your child hauls in bag of candy this Halloween, be sure that they thoroughly brush and floss after eating candy to keep their enamel strong and their mouth healthy.

Schedule an appointment with our office ff your child begins experiencing tooth pain this Halloween. We will thoroughly evaluate the state of their oral health, and provide a treatment plan that works for them. Have a happy and safe Halloween, and don’t forget to brush!