Oral Health and Nutrition

Materials

Brush Up on Oral Health
This series of tip sheets provides Head Start staff with information on current practice, practical tips to promote good oral health, and recipes for healthy snacks. Topics include teething, fluoridated community water, healthy drink choices, healthy bedtime habits, oral health during pregnancy, and preventing oral disease.

Brushing for Two: A Healthy Start for Your Baby
This tip sheet for pregnant women explains why oral health is important and how to maintain good oral health during pregnancy. Contents include information about oral hygiene, nutrition, and the safety of receiving oral health care during pregnancy. The tip sheet is printed in English on one side and in Spanish on the other.

Cook's Corner: Recipes for Healthy Snacks-Compiled from Brush Up on Oral Health

This cookbook includes recipes to support children's healthy growth and development with ingredients that are fresh, high in fiber, and low in fat. None of the recipes include added sugar. The recipes can be used by early care and education programs to help meet nutrition standards from the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Feeding Infants And Young Toddlers: Using The Latest Evidence in Child-Care Settings

This brief summarizes evidence for promoting healthy nutrition in early care and education settings. Topics include breastfeeding, recognizing infants' and toddlers' hunger and fullness cues, shaping food preferences among infants and toddlers, and feeding strategies to reduce the likelihood that young children will develop tooth decay.

Healthy Beverage Consumption in Early Childhood: Recommendations from Key National Health and Nutrition Organizations-Consensus Statement
This consensus statement provides evidence-based recommendations on beverage consumption for infants and children from birth to age 5. The document includes definitions of beverage types and describes the process for developing the recommendations. It offers information about beverages that are best for infants and children, beverages to limit, and beverages to avoid.

Healthy Futures: Engaging the Oral Health Community in Childhood Obesity Prevention
This special supplement includes articles prepared for the Healthy Futures: Engaging the Oral Health Community in Childhood Obesity Prevention National Conference. The articles discuss the science related to preventing childhood obesity and reducing children's consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and strategies that oral health professionals and organizations can employ to prevent childhood obesity.

Healthy Habits for Happy Smiles
This series of handouts for pregnant women and parents of infants and young children provides simple tips on nutrition and oral health issues. Topics include brushing a young child's teeth, choosing healthy drinks for young children, encouraging young children to drink water, giving young children healthy snacks, taking care of oral health for pregnant women, and taking care of an infant's oral health. The series is available in English and in Spanish.

Healthy Smiles for Mom and Baby: Implementation Guide
This guide describes an approach to increasing pregnant women's and infants' utilization of oral health services by implementing two models for obtaining oral health care: (1) maintaining a closed referral system and (2) integrating preventive oral health services into Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) services.

I Like My Teeth (oral health posters)
These posters for consumers share simple, positive messages about brushing children's teeth with fluoridated toothpaste, drinking fluoridated water, eating a healthy diet, and talking to the dentist or doctor about fluoride treatments for children. The posters are available in English and in Spanish.

Kids Drinking Water: A Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
This paper discusses the importance of children drinking water. Topics include information about the importance of water consumption in preventing chronic disease; obstacles to ensuring that students have access to clean, safe drinking water in schools; drinking water challenges in communities; and opportunities for funders to increase children's access to and consumption of free, safe drinking water. Improving access, prioritizing education, funding data collection and research, promoting multisectoral partnerships, and advocating for supportive policies are also discussed.

Lessons in a Lunch Box: Healthy Teeth Essentials & Facts About Snacks
This lunch box provides parents with information about oral health and healthy eating choices and practices. Ordering information; downloadable files, including a description of the program, a 5-day lesson guide for teachers, and an outline of the lessons; a video about the program; and other supplemental materials are available on the website. The lunch box is also available in Braille.

Nutrition Counseling for Obesity Prevention in Children: A Handbook for the Dental Community
This handbook is intended to increase the knowledge of dental students, residents, fellows, and dental hygiene students about obesity prevention, nutrition, and nutrition counseling for children. The handbook provides an overview of childhood obesity and its consequences, recommendations that support optimal oral health and healthy weight in children, and tools that oral health professionals can use to support childhood-obesity-prevention efforts.

Rethink Your Drink, Choose Water!
This infographic provides information about sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and tips on healthy alternatives. Topics include the potential impact of SSB consumption on oral health; the amount of sugar in different beverages; and recommended daily limits on sugar for infants, children, adolescents, and adults. Information about reading nutrition labels, limiting juice, and choosing water is provided.

Federal Agencies and National Organizations

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics works to improve the nation's health and advance the profession of dietetics through research, education, and advocacy. The academy also provides expert testimony at hearings, comments on proposed federal and state regulations, and develops position statements on food and nutrition issues.

American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry advocates for policies, guidelines, and programs that promote optimal oral health and oral health care for infants, children, and adolescents, including those with special health care needs.

American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) works to improve children's oral health through communication and collaboration between medical and dental homes and to make pediatricians and other health professionals an essential part of the oral health team. AAP's Section on Oral Health and Chapter Oral Health Advocates provide education, training, and advocacy for pediatricians, dentists, other health professionals, and families.

American Dental Association
The American Dental Association is committed to the public's oral health and to ethics, science, and professional advancement. Initiatives include those related to advocacy, education, research, and the development of standards.

American Dental Hygienists' Association
The American Dental Hygienists' Association works to advance the art and science of dental hygiene, promote standards of education and practice in the profession, and provide professional support and educational programs.

Association of State Public Health Nutritionists
The Association of State Public Health Nutritionists is a membership organization that provides state and national leadership on food and nutrition issues, programs, and services aimed at improving population health.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Oral Health, provides leadership in preventing and controlling oral disease, promoting oral health, and improving the quality of community water fluoridation.

Maternal and Child Health Bureau
The Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) is part of the Health Resource and Services Administration. MCHB's mission is to improve the health and well-being of America's mothers, children, and families. The bureau's website provides information about funding opportunities; maternal and child health topics; programs and initiatives; and data, research, and epidemiology.

National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center
The National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC) responds to the needs of professionals working in states and communities, with the goal of improving oral health services for pregnant women, infants, children, and adolescents, including those with special health care needs, and their families (maternal and child health [MCH] population).

OHRC works on a variety of projects funded by government agencies, including the Center on Oral Health Integration and Improvement (COHSII), a consortium that works with key stakeholders to improve systems of care in support of a quality improvement, patient-centered approach to address the oral health needs of the MCH population. The consortium is led by OHRC, working in collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors and the Dental Quality Alliance.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports research on environmental and policy strategies that have the greatest potential to improve healthy eating and weight patterns among children to prevent childhood obesity, especially among groups at high risk for obesity.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on public policy, science, and effective management. The department strives to provide all Americans access to a safe, nutritious, and secure food supply.