Beverage Tragedy for Infants

Not many people until recently recognized the tragedy of introducing juice to infants. Dentists have known for a couple of decades that juice is a primary factor in the growing problem of cavities in young children, particularly infants. Recently, however, the medical community has also recognized that juice is a primary factor in a number of childhood disease issues that have grown in the last couple decades. There are several serious issues that result from introducing infants to juice rather than water during the time of weaning from milk.

First, and perhaps most obvious is that the repeated exposure of sugary acidic beverages such as all fruit juices and other sweet beverages creates an incredibly rich cavity causing environment in the mouth. Children develop cavities at an extremely high rate when juice is part of their infant diet. Often the cavities are so severe and the child so young we have to take the children to the hospital and restore the teeth under general anesthesia.

Bad Teeth...Bad Grades!

A recent study at USC and published in the Journal of Public Health verifies that children with poor oral health have, on average, lower grades. They also miss more days of school due to tooth aches and dental appointments. It also pointed out that parents of these students miss more days of work due to the need to care for their children's dental appointments.

One of the tragedies here is to know this is so simple to prevent, though without adequate information, parents find it difficult to accomplish. An early start (age 1) with good instruction will demonstrate to parents how simple it is to give children an excellent start to a lifetime of good oral health.  Cavity free, healthy, beautiful smiles.

Chocolate Milk Makes Cavities!

Chocolate milk is candy.  Granted it has milk protein and calcium, but the sugar ratio to other nutrients still makes it candy.  As for its ability to make cavities, it is less of a problem than juice and sports drinks because it is not acidic like them.  I put it on the same scale as chocolate candy, except we do not nibble on chocolate candy multiple times a day every day.  Infants and toddlers who drink chocolate milk do sip on it at multiple opportunities during the day.  Some have it in a sippy cup or bottle and sip on it all day.  As you might expect, these kids develop a high rate of cavities early in life* and they establish an oral bacterial balance around their teeth that will plague them their entire life.**

If your child is already “addicted”*** to the sweet flavor of chocolate milk, there are a couple options for you.

1) Adamantly restrict chocolate milk to one glass at mealtime when it will be mixed with the other foods of the meal.  Note:  If you can do this you are a committed person (and tougher than me).  If children are used to having chocolate milk throughout the day, and they know it is in the house, they will insist on having it as usual and you will have a small war (demands, crying & tantrums) on your hands.  My experience with small wars with children is that they win … every time.  They don’t understand losing and they will persist until they win.