Fruits and vegetables are healthy, as they contain many vitamins, minerals and other important trace elements. This is one of the reasons why many parents of small children resort to practical squeeze pies, i.e. squeeze bags with drinking spouts filled with sweet and vitamin-rich fruit puree. They are convenient, healthy and tasty – and their regular consumption favors tooth decay.
Permanent sugar and acid attack on the child’s teeth
The teeth are thus continuously washed with (fruit) acid, and also the sugar in the puree is converted by caries bacteria in the mouth into acid. The longer and the more often acid and sugar affect the child’s teeth, the greater the caries risk. Because the fruit acid flours minerals from the enamel over time, the tooth surface is softer in the sequence and thus more susceptible to tooth damage.
In addition, the enamel of milk teeth is already softer and thus more sensitive than in the permanent dentition.
It is better to chew the healthy fruit than to drink it. Because when chewing the production of saliva is stimulated. This provides a demineralization of the softened enamel and thus a renewed hardening, which makes him more resistant. The saliva also ensures that harmful acids are diluted and the smallest food particles are rinsed out of the interdental spaces.
In addition, toddlers should get used to it as early as possible, not simply to swallow their food, but to chew it properly before. Bran pieces of carrot, apple or other raw food are a “fitness training for teeth and muscles”. On the other hand, drowsing children who lack this training may fall behind in the development of the masticatory muscles and thus also in language development.
Tips for parents
- Do not forget to brush your teeth after eating: Proper dental care is important from the first deciduous tooth and ensures that the remaining teeth can develop healthily later.
- Parents should therefore brush their teeth every day with fluoridated children’s toothpaste. Wait at least half an hour after eating so that the saliva can first demineralize the enamel before it is cleaned.
- Parents should thoroughly study the ingredient lists of foods and beverages and select products that are not supplemented with sugar and acid (egg, citric acid or vitamin C).