Are you Up to the Challenge? #4: Think About Your Drink
Posted Mar 2021
By Delta Dental of Arkansas
Tagged calcium, fluoride, cavities, sugary drinks
Are you Up to the Challenge? #4: Think About Your Drink
We’ve created a 5-part series of new ideas and fun activities for parents, caregivers and educators to teach children good oral health habits and decisions.
Play online or download and print hard copies of each challenge for free use in the home and in the classroom. Boost the excitement by rewarding each milestone with treats big and small.
#4: Think About Your Drink
The Goal
Change children’s drink preferences from sugary beverages to healthier choices that reduce the risk of cavities.
The Benefit
Plain tap water and nutritious beverages like milk contain no to little cavity-causing sugar but provide healthy minerals like fluoride or nutrients like calcium that benefit teeth, gums and entire body. In the summer, you may also try watermelon to quench your thirst.
The Challenge
Encourage your children or students to trade water or milk for sugary sodas, sports drinks and fruit juice and to track their smart sips on this chart.
Parents can print or copy the chart to track the smart sips. If you don’t have a printer, save the image as a photo on your phone and use your photo mark-up tool to complete the chart.
Teachers may want to send the weekly chart home to have parents sign off on it. Alternatively, children can keep it in their desks. It may be helpful for kids to check the boxes right after lunch when their drink choices are fresh on their minds.
The Rewards
At the end of the week, tally how many times your child or student made smart sip choices. Then reward them based on the total number of times a healthy decision was made. A new toothbrush or fun-flavored toothpaste is a great starter reward. Teachers may want to tally the total number of smart sips achieved by the whole class over a certain period and adjust the reward system as needed.
Tips for Grown-ups:
You might want to think about your next cup of coffee, especially if it’s loaded with caramel and whipped topping. Try these hacks to swap your favorite sugary joe for something healthier.
A Think About Your Drink Challenge brochure, with templates of the mouthguard coloring charts, descriptions of different types of mouthguards and care instructions and more, can be viewed and downloaded for teachers/parents and kids.
Participate in our other challenges:
And then take our Smile Smarts Quiz!
Check out our video resources:
We’d love to hear from you how you are creating healthy smiles. Email us your success stories and suggestions for additional challenges at marketing@deltadentalar.com.
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