How to Wean Your Kids Off Sugary Snacks You know the struggle. Your little guy is asking for pudding, but you’ve been meaning to lower his sugar intake. Or, you’re concerned about your middle schooler’s food habits, but aren’t sure how to communicate that message without traumatizing her. What to do? We have a few tips you might appreciate. Weaning your kids off sugary snacks, (or keeping them at arm’s length in the first place), isn’t easy. We’ll serve up a few websites that’ll help you carve up nutritious snacks your kids will love (that will also appease their sweet tooth!), and hook you up with some great resources to help you maintain the positive food and body-image mood you want for y

Mints and Gum That Can Help Reduce Cavities Is your teenager concerned about their breath and constantly popping gum, mints or perhaps even candy in their mouth to freshen things up a bit? If you remember those years, you can hardly blame them. But, given that sweets aren’t exactly good for their teeth, we bet you’ve wondered at some point: “Wouldn’t it be great if, in addition to temporarily freshening breath, that same sweet also helped protect teeth from cavities?” Well, there are such wonderful treats, and the secret to their success is their not-so-secret natural ingredient list. Shall we explore? The “Secret” Ingredients Zylitol: Xylitol is a natural sweetener derived from plants. It d

Thanksgiving Snacks Kids Will Crave Their Whole Lives In the United States, November is a month of both celebration and change. Sundays are filled with football; plans for Thanksgiving preoccupy our minds; and for most of us, temperatures edge closer to freezing as the sun seems to have better places to be past 4pm. There’s also the sudden rise in the appearance of moustaches across the land as “Movember” launches and men align in solidarity to support men’s health issues – the “Mo” being short for moustache, and all. In the spirit of these two themes (celebration and change), we thought we’d offer-up a few dead-simple, good-for-you food switcheroos to help you celebrate! Thanksgiving Snacks

Leaves, pumpkins, costumes and the sniffles – fall is here and with it, a greater exposure to germs. So, we’ve got a few tips that’ll help the whole family reduce its chances of exposure to the nasty critters that make us sick. Ghosts and ghouls are okay in October, but the flu? No way! Let’s get to it. Wash those hands!: Does this really need to be on the list? Washing ones hands (that means you too, Mom and Dad), is critical to avoiding germs of all sorts, all year long. If soap and water isn’t nearby, keep bottled sanitizer in the places you live that aren’t near a sink: your car, your purse, your gym bag. Use them when appropriate. There’s a reason doctors scrub and scrub and scrub befor

Sippy cups. The cup for toddlers. Or, is it? After all, there’s the “transition cup,” the “toddler cup” and the “kid bottle.” Which is correct? Then there are a multitude of styles and materials to choose from ... not to mention the fact that certain types of sippy cups tend to land kids in the E.R.! What? We’re going to help you get through all of this muck with the help of some very well educated and experienced Mommy bloggers. Off we go! If you laugh in the face of your child each time they toss their sippy cup across the room, and not a spill is to be found, you have mechanical engineer (and parent), Richard Belanger to thank for your entitled mockery. In 1988, tired of cleaning up aft

There are three steps to developing a good flossing routine. Make it easy. Make it fun. And do it correctly. To make it easy, simply leave the floss container on the counter sink for your child to see each time they use the bathroom throughout the day. The constant visual reminder, and keeping the floss at arm's length will definitely make a difference. Make it fun. Surely, it's impossible to add anyelement of “fun” to an oral care routine, right? You'd be surprised – and we'd like to share a method with you that makes flossing fun AND achieves the third step all in one fell swoop. So what is the secret to knocking out two steps in one and doing the one thing with regard to flossing that har

Fill those candy bags, October is here! The month every kid across the land dreams could take place every day, and the only day when dressing up and eating gobs of candy is not only allowed but encouraged. Now, that's a good deal for a kid. But what if you're a parent? Everyone knows healthy snacks are the way to go every other day of the year that is not Halloween, so how do you give in a bit and let your children enjoy the festivities while keeping these healthy habits top of mind? Here are five teeth-friendly habits that'll ensure you're still communicating the right message. Divvy it up: One solution is to partition out a child's candy throughout the month so it's still seen as a treat