Raisins - Worse than chocolate for your DC's teeth?

[Sycamoretree]

Just occured to me having been reading this thread here that it might be worth pointing out just how bad raisins and other dried fruits can be for children's teeth.

Another mum had told me that in terms of dental health, you're better off giving your child chocolate than dried fruit, as it doesn't stick to the teeth and the saliva washes away more of the sugary residue.

It seems time of day is crucial for when they eat dried fruit and fruit juices. The key is to stick to just before they are likely to have their teeth cleaned, or be eating a bigger meal (so breakfast and tea time really).

Great Guardian article here

Sorry if this is coals to Newcastle territory, but I thought it was info worth sharing.

My dentist told me this, when dd1 was at peak raisin-eating age - very useful info, agree worth sharing

What about chocolate raisins?

ver ver good 29

They obviously cancel each other out, no?

I just can't get worked up about this though. If you read too much of thsi stuff you'll find you can't actually feed your children anything and it can end up causing real anxiety to some people.

At the end of the day I just work on the premise of a varied and balanced diet plus good dental hygeine (brushing in the morning and at night) and other than that I just don't think about it.

My kids eat raisins and I'm not going to start stressing about what time of day they eat them adn whether it's better to give them a bar of chocolate.

Appreciate that you are info sharing but I'm just saying - it's information overload and really the premise of a healthy child is simple - eat sensibly and brush your teeth!

Agree with Gobbledigook. My DDs eat raisins. And fruit bars. They brush their teeth (most of the time).

As part of a balanced diet, they are a great snack. I imagine they are better than a can of coke.

at least raisins count towards the 5 a day fruit/veg portions whereas chocolate wouldn't. My lo's have them on occasion but not that regularly - dd isnt that keen but ds shovels them in by the handful.

I have a toddler - if she has chocolate I have brown stuff spewing out the top end, if she has raisins it comes out the bottom end slightly later - ergo raisins are better

Yes, all points raised are completely valid. I'm not posting in an alarmist way, just a fyi really as a result of reading the other thread. It's really just the sticking to the teeth thing - of course their dietary superiority is not in question...

And I totally hear what you're saying goobledigook, but just to clarify, this is definitely not another eating fad bit of confounding information - it's absolutely just the basic mechanical facts of how the food is processed which is helpful to be aware of, even though I agree, I wouldn't start setting a timer for fruit snacks.

I think the info is particularly helpful if you have a child that is predisposed to cavities, or is a very resistant brusher. The cheese tip I also thought was helpful.