Tooth-Friendly Valentine’s Day for Kids

Heart shaped fruit skewers

Happy Valentine’s Day! This holiday is a great opportunity to celebrate all kinds of love, and kids are all about it. While a lot of Valentine’s Day traditions involve sugary candy that can damage your child’s teeth, there are plenty of other ways to celebrate that do not lead to cavities. At Polkadot Pediatric Dentistry in Alpharetta, we try to preserve fun traditions for our patients and staff that don’t involve sugar at all. Here are some of our favorite tooth-friendly Valentine’s Day ideas!

Breakfast and Lunch Ideas

Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to make the foods that your child eats every day just a little bit more exciting! If you make foods like pancakes or bagels with cream cheese for their breakfast, try adding a little bit of red food coloring to the batter or cream cheese to make a festive pink color! Some other fun breakfast options include strawberry milk for their cereal, cut up strawberries, and heart shaped pancakes or toast!

Since Valentine’s Day falls on a weekday this year, your child will probably be eating their lunch at school. If you pack their lunch, keep the festive feeling going! They will feel so special and excited when they open their lunch to find a heart-shaped sandwich or fruit cut up into heart shapes! This can easily be done with a cookie cutter. You may even want to include a special note for your child to read at lunchtime to remind them how much you love them. We advise against packing candy in their lunch as a treat, as they will probably be getting a lot of treats from their classmates that day!

Class Valentines

If your child is going to be giving out valentines to their classmates, encourage them to choose valentine cards that have a gifts like stickers, temporary tattoos, or small toys or trinkets instead of candy. If everyone in their class brings a candy treat with their valentines, that adds up to anywhere between 20 and 35 pieces of candy per child! Your child’s teeth (and the other parents!) will appreciate more of variety in their Valentine’s Day haul.

Gift Ideas

If you would like to get your child a gift to celebrate Valentine’s Day, consider something that will last longer and cause less damage than candy. There are some great classic gifts out there like stuffed animals, flowers, and balloons that will help them feel special and celebrated. You can also go for a less traditional option such as a toy or game that you know they would love! Another option is to give them an experiential gift. Take them out for Valentine’s Day dinner or a movie. Even just a trip to play at the park together can be a lot of fun.

No matter how you choose to celebrate, we hope you and your family have a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Is your child due for a dental cleaning? Schedule an appointment with us today!