You may be one of millions of American adults who are plagued with a sweet tooth.  You simply cannot get enough sugar, and sometimes you find yourself eating midnight snacks and going back to bed with sugary debris stuck to your teeth.  You know that this is unhealthy, but you keep doing it, because it is a habit.  More than likely as well, this habit was formed long agobefore you were even old enough to walk into the kitchen to grab a soda, piece of chocolate, or slice of pie.

So how exactly did this happen to you at such a young age?  How could you have developed a sweet tooth before you even had all of your teeth?   The answer will probably surprise you.

The Academy of General Dentistry did a study and concluded that there is a very strong link between sweetened drinks consumed by infants and toddlers and the noticeably presence of a sweet tooth in later childhood, adolescents, and adulthood.  All children are impressionable, and a childs teeth are no exception.  The foods a child consumes during the time when his or her first teeth are emerging will significantly impact eating habits for a lifetime.  If you feed a child sweetened cereal, raisins, graham crackers, sweetened juices, or so called fruit drinks that contain only about 7 percent real juice, a sugar habit almost inevitably results that plagues the child into adulthood.

Sugar, of course, causes cavities in children, teens, and adults.  Sugar is also habit forming.  The sooner an infant develops a sweet tooth, the stronger the compulsion to eat high-sugar snacks as an adult.  The time in a childs life when he or she is most vulnerable to a sugar habit is at the time of weaning.  This is when children begin to actually chew their food, and this early chewing actually imprints on the brain a actual eating habits that can last as long as a lifetime. 

Problems show up sooner than this, however.  Bottle syndrome, a term for baby bottle tooth decay, often results when teeth are continually exposed to sugary fluids.  Bacteria build up in the mouth and secrete acid, which eats through tooth enamel.  Primary teeth are much more vulnerable to this acid than are permanent teeth, because primary teeth have much thinner enamel.  Of course, by the time cavities have already begun to show up in a childs teeth, the child already has a sweet tooth for anything that contains sugar, and he or she puts up a fight every time you tell him no about a candy bar at the store.

You may also have a problem telling yourself no because you used to be one of those kids.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to overcome a sweet tooth in your child. 

         Allow your child to drink only water between meals, and allow other beverages only during meals.

         Juice should be 10 percent or less of your childs total diet.

         Do not let your child go to bed with a bottle with anything other than water.

         Never sweeten your childs pacifier, not even with honey.

         Brush your childs teeth if you give him or her liquid medicine that contains sugar.

The key to overcoming a sweet tooth then (in a child as well as yourself) is to minimize exposure to sugar, period, and to rigorously brush and floss teeth after every exposure to any sweetened food or drink.