Put These Tooth-Friendly Snack Items On The Menu At Your Child's Birthday Party

When your child is having a birthday party, you'll spend time working on the decorations, wrapping presents and preparing the menu. Birthday parties are often rife with sugary foods that are healthy. While high-sugar foods can lead to behavioral issues in some children — and make your job managing the party considerably more difficult — they're also unhealthy for your child's teeth. If you want to hear good news at the conclusion of your child's next visit to the pediatric dentist, such as Bellasera Family Dentistry, make this party one that doesn't include any sugar on the menu. Organize plenty of fun games to keep the kids occupied and they won't fuss about the lack of sweets, either. Here are some ideas of tooth-friendly foods.

Veggies And Dip

Even before dessert, birthday party-attending children can get hopped up on cavity-causing sugar in the form of candy and other such items. Keep these items off the menu and, instead, lay out a selection of fresh veggies and dip. While carrots and celery are fine, try to get as creative as possible. The more colorful your platters are, the more that the children will be enticed, ideally. Cherry tomatoes, snap peas and yellow peppers can all be valuable additions to the menu and won't harm the dental health of any attendees.

Punch Up The Water

Instead of serving fruit punch, soda and other sugar-laden drinks, focus on glasses of water. Water is ideal for outdoor summer parties, too, as it will keep the kids hydrated. Increase the fun factor by making dozens of ice cubes in advance, and freezing fresh fruit in each cube. Use blueberries, raspberries and strawberry slices, and then put all the cubes in a cold bowl and let the kids select the cubes that they want. They'll be so entertained that they'll forget they're not sipping something sugary that could cause harm to their teeth.

Watermelon Cake

There's little doubt that the kids at the party will be eagerly anticipating the arrival of the birthday cake, so you might have a mutinous group on your hands if you hand every child a raw apple. Instead, generate some wow factor in the form of a watermelon cake. Cut the rind off a large watermelon and, with a large knife, cut it into circular slabs that you can stack together to build a unique-looking cake — and one that doesn't contain any added sugars. You can use other colorful fruits, such as kiwis, blueberries and oranges, to decorate the various levels of the cake, or whip up some whipping cream to use as "icing." There's no need to sweeten the whipping cream, as the natural sweetness of the fruit will suffice.