Sweets are better for children's teeth than juice & fruit?
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I do think it depends on the individuals teeth too! My kids saw the dentist the other day and I said the eat sweets but in moderation etc, and he said that was fine and we brush teeth twice a day. I think all dentists (similar to HV’s/GP’s) have different views on things, so take things with a pinch of salt.
Mmmmm I don’t agree with the dentist
I think it’s down to the timings of when sugar is consumed…from memory, if you’re drinking fruit drinks through the day, you’re not giving your mouth the chance to neutralise the acid. But if you eat sweets/sugar after a meal or at snack time, then they have the chance to neutralise, if that makes sense 🤔 Not sure on the reasoning of fruit vs sweets, but I think that is the case for drinks.
fruit juice (diluted juice) is awful, people usually think it’s ok cos it’s diluted with water but it’s just full of sugar.
I don't think you can compare fruit and sweets personally. Clearly fruit is much better for a child than sweets! It might be that husband's brother has misunderstood what's been said too 🤷
Juice tends to stick to the teeth if not washed down immediately with water. Sticky candy does the same though, so not sure why the dentist chose to say it like that 🤷🏻♀️
I’m a dental nurse and if they are constantly drinking fruit juice especially citrus ones it sits on there teeth and the acid starts to erode the enamel, any high sugary diet can cause it even eating sweets, it’s recommended to use a straw when having sugary drinks as it doesn’t sit on your teeth and try to drink plenty of water in between to wash away the acidic that sits there, but obviously good oral hygiene and in moderation will prevent decay.
None are good for teeth but fruit has more health benefits overall than sweets. My dentist focused on timing and told me to give fruit as part of a meal rather than a snack and that’s better for teeth. Limit sweets. Also advice was sticky fruit, ie dried fruit is worse than fresh fruit. My kids are only 2 and 4 so don’t have fruit juice yet, water 97% of the time and the odd fruit shoot as a treat.
You could get no added sugar squash and dilute it more than normal. I think it probably depends on the type of sweet and fruit with how bad they are. Dried fruit sticks to the teeth and lollipops are bad because they're lingering in the mouth. But fruit has fibre as well as other nutrients so overall that is better.
It depends, they're both bad and should be limited to meal times only
No need to give children juice or processed sugar to begin with. Fruit and water are just fine.
The dentist were I used to work. Would say if children are having something sweet or fruit have it with a meal not several times through out the day. That way there is less sugar attacks on the teeth. They wouldn't promote juice or sweets. As the best drink that doesn't hurt teeth is drinking water. I have never given my lg juice she had water or milk.
Fruit juice is just as much processed sugar as sweets, as most of the nutrients are removed to make juice, it's essentially sugar water.
I hate how's there's no third option. Offer ice water, skip juice, skip sweets, fruit ok
I think it depends - fruit juice isn’t great for teeth. And some kinds of fruit are better/worse than others. Dried fruit is terrible for teeth. But I would have assumed sweets etc are worse. So I don’t think the dentist was right to say what he said, but I can see his point about fruit and fruit juice.