Building good oral habits in children is essential to a lifetime or good oral health.

However, even good oral habits and early dental care may not be enough if you’re letting your little ones eat the wrong snacks. Regularly snacking on the wrong foods can lead to cavities, so it’s important to learn which snacks you should avoid to prevent cavities and keep your child’s teeth beautiful and healthy.

Fruit Juices

Although fruit juices may seem like a healthy choice that’s better than sodas, it often contains at least as much sugar as sugary sodas do. Fruit juices lose a lot of their nutritional value when they are extracted, and you’re left with a lot of sugar. If kids are drinking juices out of sippy cups, sugar can just sit on teeth, allowing bacteria to grow that can cause tooth decay and cavities.

Fruits with Syrup

Fruit sounds like a great snack option for your kids, but if it’s been packed in thick, sweet syrup, it’s not a good choice for your child’s teeth or their overall health. If you’re going to go with canned fruit, make sure you go with options packed with 100% fruit juice. However, fresh fruit is always a healthier choice.

Cracker Snacks

Kids love carbs, but cracker snacks are a horrible choice for your child’s oral health. Graham crackers, goldfish crackers, and other types of crackers all turn into sugar once they’re on your child’s teeth, which means they increase the risk of cavities as much as eating candy does.

Sticky Fruit Snacks

Sticky fruit snacks and dried fruits are delicious, which is why kids enjoy them, but these sticky foods cling to teeth and stay between teeth, and those sugars quickly turn into a buffet for bacteria.

Don’t let kids snack on these cavity-causing snacks regularly. Choose healthy snacks to keep their tummies full, get them started with good oral habits, and make sure they head into the dentist’s office regularly for preventive care to keep their smile looking healthy.

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