From soft drinks to fruit juice, many sugary drink choices appeal to kids. Kids prefer these options to water because of the fun colours and sweet flavours.
They see their favourite characters used to advertise these products, and they wonder why their friends' parents don't enforce the same limits on sugary drinks that you do. All these factors make it tough to ensure that your kids drink healthy liquids. Nevertheless, you should make the effort.
You want your kids to have healthy, happy smiles, and you know sweet drinkscan cause tooth decay. Are you struggling to teach your child to enjoy sugary drinks as an occasional treat rather than a go-to beverage? Use the tips below to teach this healthy habit and protect your child's teeth.
1. Start early. Your efforts are more likely to succeed if you make the decision early. Decide to offer water instead of sweeter drinks before your kidstransition to solid foods, if possible. Their desire for sugary drinks will be lower if they've never tasted them.
2. Dilute juice to break the habit. If your kids already have daily cravings for juice or soft drinks, that's okay. You can still train their taste buds not to prefer sweet drinks. Help them slowly break their habit by adding water to any sugary drink you give them. Over time, increase the amount of water you add and reduce the amount of juice or soda you pour. This method lets kids taste the flavours without exposing their teeth to as much sugar.
3. Let kids drink from special water-only cups. You can make drinking water more fun by investing in specialcupsjust for water. A toddler or pre-schooler might want a sippy cup with his or her favourite cartoon or book character on the side. School-aged kids might enjoy picking their own reusable metal or plastic water bottles. You can also buy colourful twisted straws. Whatever accessories you choose, establish that kids can drink only water from these cups or straws. The special items give children an incentive to drink water and help them have fun while they do so.
4. Make fun ice cubes. If you need another way to make water appealing, do it with ice. Try the two methods below to help water feel less ordinary:
Buy ice trays with fun shapes. Kids enjoy watching those shapes melt. Put whole fresh fruits in ice cube trays. Then put water in the trays and freeze them as normal. Kids like the colour these ice cubes add to fluoridated tap water.
Fruits that fit in trays easily include blueberries, raspberries, cut strawberries, citrus fruit slices and kiwi. Offer these ice cubes only to kids who can chew and swallow fruit to avoid choking hazards.
5. Read drink labels carefully. You make the battle against sugary drinks easier for you and your kids if you don't buy them. Learn to examine drink labels before you purchase any new products. Don't be persuaded by statements about vitamins or natural juice. Instead, look at the sugar content listed in the nutritional information section. The New South Wales Centre for Oral Health (
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/oralhealth/Documents/toothsmart-6-reading-food-drink-labels.pdf) recommends avoiding products that have more than 7.5 g sugar in every 100 mL.
6. Set a good example. Your kids will follow the example you set, so make sure you practice the house rulesfor drinking non-sugary liquids.
Those rules apply even when your kids aren't watching, such as while you're at the office. Your kids will see your example, realise they can trust your rules and desire to do as you do. It's time to put these tips into action. Encourage your kids to drink mostly water and other unsweetened drinks to help them avoid tooth decay.
