Smile Reef
Treats and more Treats
Children love Halloween. And who could blame them? It’s a fun, festive, and family oriented holiday where they get to dress up as something awesome and receive boatloads of free candy. Pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples,hay rides, and other games are fun activities for Halloween, but the holiday is most notorious for candy and treats. Americans spend an average of $8 billion on candy annually. Imagine the effect that all that sugar has on your children’s teeth; it’s a truly scary thought. So here are some suggestions to making it through the night without any frightening results.
1- Make sure your children eat a balanced meal before they go trick-or-treating.
2- Try to incorporate as many healthy alternatives as possible for snacks and candy. If children have healthy things to snack on besides candy and junk food, especially if they are fun or themed, children are just as likely to eat good food instead of junk.
3- Established expectations for children by setting guidelines of how much candy they can eat before the festivities begin. Some children are good at monitoring themselves but others, depending on their age, may need specific limits set.
4- Do not let sugar sit on your children’s teeth for hours. Sugar works like an acid that dissolves tooth enamel, so either have your children brush their teeth after consuming candy or at least make sure they drink water between to wash the sugar off their teeth.
5- After Halloween, get candy out of the house. When I was young, we always had to give away half of our candy to the homeless shelter in the area which I loved. You can also donate it to the troops overseas. It doesn’t matter what you do with it, but try to get rid of it as much as possible and ensure what you do keep is stored in the kitchen and not in children’s rooms.
Our office is participating in a Halloween candy “buy” back where children who donate candy receive a prize in exchange. All candy donated will be shipped to the troops overseas. The candy will be sent to Operation Gratitude who sends individualized packages to our soldiers. Our office will be having our buyback event from November 1st-4th so feel free to come by anytime or call us at 702-570-7333 with any questions!