To think two fruit snacks a day will rot primary school teeth

[fruitbat2021]

Infant school insisting that children have 2 fruit snacks a day and it must be fruit. Can also be raw veg but unfortunately my children don't like raw veg without a dip. I might send it in with a dip.

You can send them RAISINS but not a piece of cheese. How can this be healthy for their teeth? Every time I tell my dentist he visibly shudders.

Do other primaries allow non fruit snacks?

He can be a bit serious and did tell me off for snacking too much as he said adults don't need to snack

Last year I apologised to my dentist for pulling out a filling by eating liquorice. He said "Goodness me, you don't have to apologise. It's not my job to tell you what you can and can't eat"

@Signalbox

And your dentist needs to get a life

Don’t be daft. It’s a dentist’s job to educate their patients. The dentist will be dealing daily with young children who develop cavities when the parents swear blind that their child is eating a 100% healthy diet. With not much investigation it usually transpires that parents aren’t aware that juices/smoothies/dried fruit and products with “no added sugar” are not harmful to teeth. There are so many mixed messages out there it’s no wonder that people get confused.

Honestly, he kind of does. Imagine a lifetime of being scared of fruit. Crikey, he needs to loosen up

Are you fucking your dentist?

They should probably take him off me

The recent study conducted in USA Department of Food and Nutrition reveal that eating raisins may protect against cavities. According to researchers raisins contain five phytochemicals, plant antioxidants including oleanolic acids which help to stop the growth of bacteria that causes dental caries.

Worrying over fruit this much is a little silly but it is annoying that they think fruit is the holy grail of snacks when it isn't. Most child nutritionists recommend balanced snacks - protein is important as it fills kids up better than fruit, and yes it's better for teeth if the sugar/acid of fruit is balanced by something else. The school banning anything other than fruit or veg isn't helpful.

Send fruits that aren't too hard on the teeth. Pears, apples, peaches, melon, berries etc (I had to Google 😁) and train them to have a good swig of water when they've eaten it.

just don't send them in with snacks.... what are the school actually going to do?

Raisins are really bad for teeth as they get stuck on them. Not as big an issue with fresh fruit. Especially if the kids are drinking water with it.

@howaboutchocolate

Worrying over fruit this much is a little silly but it is annoying that they think fruit is the holy grail of snacks when it isn't. Most child nutritionists recommend balanced snacks - protein is important as it fills kids up better than fruit, and yes it's better for teeth if the sugar/acid of fruit is balanced by something else. The school banning anything other than fruit or veg isn't helpful.

it's probably to stop parents sending kids in with Mars bars and Red bull as snacks.

if it's "fruit, and only fruit" - there's little room for 'confusion'.

nobody can say they were confused and send the kids in with a 5 pack of doughnuts…

@ThrowingAShellstrop

Are you aware it is recommended your children have 5 portions of fruit/vegetables a day but actually it is more like 8 portions?

Chickpeas are a pulse btw not a vegetable.

LOL 😂

they're actually a legume and so 'count' as a vegetable

@SquirtleSquad

My dentist told me exactly the same when my daughter was young. Fruit is fine with meals but not as a snack because the sugar stays on the teeth. With a meal they have a drink so helps wash the sugar away or something.

I agree, OP. You're just repeating proper dental advice (which the school should really be paying attention to). My DS is usually only offered fruit with meals - so one piece with breakfast, one piece after lunch and one piece as part of his 'pudding' after dinner. Snacks between meals are mostly limited to cheese, carrot sticks and nuts here unless we're having a treat out and about.

There are some fruits which are good (or at least less bad) for teeth. Berries are low in sugar. Strawberries especially act as a natural stain remover. And apples are actually good for teeth, despite being acidic, as the sugars in them neutralise harmful acids. So if we're taking a fruit snack out of the house with us, we usually take an apple. A little bit of cheese is an excellent snack, though - tooth-friendly and high protein - so it's a shame the school won't allow that.

But I'd focus on what you can do rather than trying to get the school to change its policy. So:

• Send in an apple and carrot sticks/celery/cucumber.
• Tell your children to have a drink of water after snack time and mealtimes to wash the sugars away from their teeth.
• Do extra teeth brushing when they come home with a low fluoride toothpaste.
• Give cheese as an after-school snack if they need something before dinner.
• Be rigorous with dentist visits.

I'm sure you're doing most of these things anyway.

Yes, their baby teeth will fall out but it's good to set them up with excellent oral hygiene habits early on.

Children need fruit and veg in their diet
If you’re not happy with your children having even 2 pieces of fruit a day how do you manage to get them to have the time to eat enough range of vegetables each day to give them the vitamins they need?

You’d be having to give them vegetables with breakfast!

Agree with 001 - why the constant need for snacking? It shouldn't be compulsory to have two snacks a day ... what happens if the DC hasn't got a 'snack'. (BTW I am not anti snacks, I love snacks unhealthier the better I just hate the way everything seems to be 'policed' these days - surely teachers have got better things to do?)

To be fair to the OP she has every right to be concerned about her kid's teeth, and fruit acids do cause enamel erosion, that's a scientific fact even if it is annoying and inconvenient. And cheese is better for teeth, cheese actually neutralises acid in the mouth - so if the school didn't have a pole up their arse then maybe the OP could send in her kids with a fruit and cheese combo snack and problem solved, but she can't. I read only recently about a mum whose primary age son had really bad decay/erosion and the dentist really told her off for feeding him crap, but when they looked further into it is turned out it was because he ate tonnes of grapes every day and they had wrecked his teeth.

I think pears and bananas have less acid than other fruits so I would opt for those with a drink of water to wash them down.

We’re not allowed to send in any nuts / nut butters, strawberries, kiwis (there are allergies) and now we can’t send in grapes or blueberries because there was a choking incident at another school. I tried sending in cut up blueberries and was told off by my DC. I just send in crackers, apple, mandarin and orange.

By fruit snacks does the dentist think you mean things like those 'healthy' snack bars made of dried fruit that just stick to teeth and are full of sugar?
I guess you could also be equally concerned about the salt and fat content of cheese - would they allow a bit of sliced apple and a few cheese chunks mixed in?

Sounds like a shit kid’s book.
Fruitbat And The Shuddering Dentist.

Will somebody PLEASE think of the children?

I'd definitely keep oranges for an after-meal fruit snack - they're very acidic. Tomatoes are highly acidic so I wouldn't offer cherry tomatoes as a snack either.

LOL at parents being "shouted at" for sending in crackers.

It's only an issue if they eat fruit constantly morning to evening. If you keep it to those two snacks, definitely ok. Also drinking water. Most people in this country still don't eat enough fruit, which is why we have so many bowel problems.