The dark side of the Easter Bunny!

Its that time of year again where kids get to decorate bonnets, go on egg hunts and enjoy some quality family time. It’s an exciting weekend for children but one that certainly takes a toll on their dental health. At mydentist, we recently took a wonder round the shops to see how much sugar is in the popular Easter treat – much to our dismay!

There isn’t many of us who don’t enjoy smashing an Easter egg open in the evening, and it’s not exactly a secret that there’s sugar hiding in them, but are we really aware of how much? Here’s some of the biggest sugar offenders we found:

Maltesers MaltEaster Bunny:

3 teaspoons of sugar

1 Cadburys crème egg:

6 heaped teaspoons of sugar

Milky Bar white chocolate cow:

9 teaspoons of sugar

Cadbury daily milk buttons egg:

11 teaspoons of sugar

1 Lindt gold bunny:

13 teaspoons of sugar

1 small 90g Cadburys bag mini eggs:

14 teaspoons of sugar

Its shocking to see that what is classed as small bag of mini eggs is one of the biggest culprits of the sugar attack – carrying the same amount of sugar as 5 glazed Krispy Crème doughnuts.

How can I protect my child’s teeth during Easter?

Children will be children and you can’t always stop them from eating sweet treats. At such an exciting time of year, you don’t want to put a dampener on celebrations with a sweet ban. So how do you protect them?

• Ensure they brush their teeth for two minutes, twice a day. This can be a tricky one to enforce but they’ll get it sooner or later. The good habits you instil now will follow them later in life too.
• If they eat sweets, make sure it’s with a meal and never before bed as they’ll sleep with sugar on their teeth.
• Do try to limit their sugar intake where possible during Easter. If you know they’re going to visit family who may treat them, avoid chocolate earlier on in the day.
• Try alternatives to chocolate. Whilst its traditional, we’re in an era now where a present instead of chocolate is more than acceptable and sometimes preferred!

Easter certainly is a time for fun and celebrations, and we don’t expect you to police your child’s fun. However, you should be ensuring that they are properly protected from the Easter treats we all indulge in at this time of year. To learn more about your child’s dental hygiene visit our Kids club page for a detailed guide on dental health for all ages.