Candy Advice from Dr. Jason

From personal experience, I can tell you what used to happen in my home the day after Halloween. The kids would spread their candy on the floor or table and see what they got and then the candy would go in a bucket on top of the fridge. Trying to be responsible parents, the rule used to be you could only have a couple of pieces of candy a day from the bucket. Pretty reasonable, right?! It wasn't until years of doing this, I realized that that a few candies a day would last until the winter holidays and then the bucket would get refilled with more candy. And that would last until Valentine's Day at school. And then get refilled again during Easter. With our rules, I allowed my kids to have candy every day for six full months.

If a person is prone to getting cavities, it is because they have the bacteria that eat sugars and produce acid, resulting in holes in the teeth (cavities). If I encourage every child that has the bacteria for creating cavities the rules above, we can expect cavities every single year for those children. So what modifications can we recommend so that they can enjoy the splendor of receiving candy door-to-door or any other holiday but limit the cavities that can come from them?  In recent years, we've modified our candy rule and I would like to share these rules with parents.

Every kid is excited by the score they received from trick-or-treating. Tell your child to pick their favorite candies and for the next two weeks, they're allowed to have those candies for lunch when they get home from school, that's fine BUT AFTER THE TWO WEEKS IS OVER, the stash of candy either gets thrown away or sometimes in my cases take it to work. This allows the children to get the candy they really like and also gives their mouth a break from processed sugars until the next holiday when they will receive it again.   

This is not a perfect solution but it works as a compromise of the struggles we face.  As with most struggles parents have, I like to pass along any tips I've found useful myself.

Happy Holidays,

Dr. Jason