Teaching our children healthy eating habits is a key step in laying the foundation for a strong, healthy body. But as we know, health starts in the mouth too: a balanced diet, rich in wholesome foods, is essential to keep both our teeth and our kids’ teeth strong and healthy.
Limiting sweets, candies, and sugary fizzy drinks, while favoring fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, is a great starting point for a smile-friendly diet… but what do you do when your little ones are crazy about the very foods they should avoid?
Enforcing strict rules at mealtime can easily turn eating into a battle: adults stress over negotiating every bite of broccoli or carrot, while kids clench their jaws and refuse to cooperate, throwing tantrums or even staging a full-blown hunger strike.
Does it really have to be this way? Fortunately, no!
Here are some practical tips to turn mealtime into an enjoyable experience for everyone – from us parents, teaching good habits, to our children, learning to take care of their health starting with their oral health.
Take It Step by Step
Switching overnight from burgers and ice cream to large plates of salad and fresh fruit can be… quite a shock! For this reason, it can be helpful to proceed gradually, without eliminating the staples of indulgent eating altogether. For example, pizza is loved by all kids, and there’s no need to take it off the menu. By adding a vegetable topping, we can introduce this valuable food easily. In the same way, although limiting carbohydrate consumption is recommended for maintaining healthy teeth, we should not banish pasta altogether: instead, opt for the wholegrain variety.
To achieve the goal of encouraging children to eat healthily, we can start with the pantry: make all those foods that we know to be beneficial for oral health a regular fixture, and avoid filling the fridge with carbonated drinks and assorted sweets. In this way, a healthy diet will not be an abrupt imposition, but simply part of everyday life.
Make Healthy Eating Fun!
Turn mealtime into a playful experience. When the youngest children are still getting to grips with “grown-up” food, we can let them play with what is on their plate, using their hands to explore tastes and textures. Providing them with colourful plates rich in vegetables — perhaps arranged in fun shapes, such as smiley faces or little animals — will spark their curiosity and make these foods synonymous with an enjoyable moment. The fussiness will soon diminish!
Another idea is to create “mini” versions of healthy foods: a small spinach-rich quiche in a muffin tin, for example, can entice children to take that first bite.
Eat Together as a Family
Mealtimes should be a shared, enjoyable moment for the whole family. In this way, on one hand we turn mealtimes into an enjoyable occasion: imagine inviting some of your children’s friends over — for them it will be a celebration. On the other hand, it allows us to lead by example, showing how even adults can be perfectly happy eating healthy foods that are also good for their teeth. And then, after the meal — everyone off to brush their teeth!
Cook Together
Involving children in meal preparation can help them feel more comfortable with healthy foods. So yes to involvement at every stage of the process: from the grocery shop, where we can ask for their opinion on which vegetables to put on the table, to the preparation of the meal itself, assigning small tasks based on their age. And then, if time and space allow, why not set up a small vegetable garden to tend together? A couple of pots for growing strawberries or cherry tomatoes will be all it takes — and a wonderful incentive to enjoy them together at the table!
No Pressure
The path towards a healthy diet can be long and challenging. The important thing is not to give up — but equally not to force the issue: being too insistent, and perhaps understandably losing patience, can have the opposite effect. If our children refuse to eat a specific type of vegetable, let us consider that it may simply come down to personal taste. Let us try something different, or experiment with new recipes.
The temptation to ban certain foods from the table entirely can be strong. However, this is not always a good idea: nothing makes something more appealing than an absolute prohibition! Reducing the consumption of sweet snacks, for example, is extremely important; let us try replacing them with fruit-based snacks, while still allowing for the occasional special occasion where giving in to a slice of cake is perfectly fine. Ideally as a dessert after a meal, so as to take advantage of the greater saliva production and its important buffering action against oral acidity — which increases with sugar consumption and is responsible for dental fragility and cavities.
The presence of food residues in the oral cavity — particularly those rich in the sugars that bacteria thrive on — causes a drop in pH which, as it becomes increasingly acidic, leads to demineralisation, dental erosion, and ultimately cavities. For this reason, careful oral hygiene is essential: it is advisable not to brush immediately after eating, as this facilitates the action of the acidic components of food and damages the enamel. It is therefore beneficial to use natural dental sprays in the meantime — based on bicarbonate, they immediately rebalance oral pH.
Once again, setting a good example is essential: children watch and imitate our habits, even at the dinner table.
