Limiting fruit juices may be the answer
Giving your children their five a day could be damaging their teeth, according to dentists.
Large amounts of fruit juice are not good for a child's dental health - even though it is an easy way to provide them with their essential nutrients and vitamins.
Kathy Harley, dean of the dental faculty at the Royal College of Surgeons, warned that half of five-year-olds had signs of wear to their tooth enamel.
She warns that fruit juices have become the known causative agent for dental erosion by and dental decay of children because of their high sugar release on the surface of the teeth.
However, she accepts the health benefits of the fruit juices, but recommends to offer it as a treat once a week. A 150ml glass of fruit juice counts as one of the recommended daily portions of fruit and vegetables a day, according to NHS guidelines. Drinking any more than this does not actually count towards your RDA.
Kathy has called on schools to offer milk or water to pupils during breaks intead of fruit juice, which has a high acid content.
Research has indicated that drinking fruit juice with a meal can help to reduce damage to the teeth, it has also been suggested that eating fruit is harmless if you drink water to clean the tooth.
Research published last year by King's College London Dental Institute, based on a study of 1,000 people aged between 18 and 30, suggested eating an apple could be worse for teeth than drinking a fizzy drink because of the acid it contains.
Tagged in Parenting Dental Health children's health