Did you know that oral disease is the number one chronic childhood illness in the U.S.?
A great way to seriously help prevent cavities is by encouraging your kids to brush, floss and use mouthwash daily. We participated in the Listerine Sweet Smart challenge for the last 30 days and I’ll admit flossing is tougher for my kids to remember but using Listerine Mouth Wash is a totally simple thing to add to a child’s daily dental routine.
Plus, the kids think it is very fun to swish and spit so Kenzie and Kyle were all over making this a permanent addition to their routine versus a once in while or few times a week habit.
And with Halloween hitting us this month, it’s a time when kids are potentially eating more sweets. Sigh.
Even worse than chocolate are those “sticky” type sweets that get stuck between your teeth if you don’t floss. We literally throw out every gummy or sticky candy from the Halloween bin the 1st night. We learned our lesson the hard way with Kyle having his cavity debacle last year – who knows it was just bad luck from his Celiac disease or us not flossing the teeth of a 3 year old – really who knew I needed to floss my 3 year olds teeth – at that age he didn’t even eat juice or candy ? (But fruit can be a culprit too!)
GASP – this year instead of handing out candy, I handed out toy favors to the kids in our neighborhood sent to me from a PR firm for some very cool toys. My husband thought I was crazy – but luckily the kids disagreed with him and thought it was super cool to get something different besides candy. I gave out Blingles (super fun sparkly stickers) and Trashies – squishy small Trash Pack characters.
Do you have your kids floss and do mouthwash daily? If not – get them to take the Sweet Smart Challenge.
Dislcosure: I received proudcts from Johnson & Johnson Products division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in the LISTERINE SWEET SMART Challenge. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.