Instructions

• Most of us enjoy sugary drinks like soda pop, juice, and sports drinks. Do you like any of these drinks? If so, which ones and how often do you drink them?
• While they taste really good, the sugar in these beverages can cause cavities and weight gain. Every time you drink something with sugar in it, it causes an acid attack that can lead to cavities.
• While you may crave these types of drinks, let’s talk about reaching for a glass of water instead.

Activity

1. How much sugar are you drinking?

Use the following script to demonstrate to the pregnant woman how much sugar is in some of the beverages she likes to drink.

• Let’s explore the amount of sugar in different types of drinks and talk about why water is a better choice.
• Show the pregnant woman the nutrition label on the right. Let’s guess the amount of sugar that is in this drink.
• This is a bottle (20 ounces) of regular cola. Let’s look at the nutrition label to see how many servings and how much sugar is in this bottle.
• The label says Sugars—65 grams. There are four grams of sugar in a teaspoon. Divide the number of grams by 4 to tell us how many teaspoons of sugar. Example 65 ÷ 4 = 16.25
• Now let’s look at the number of servings in this container. There is one serving which means there are 16.25 teaspoons of sugar in this bottle.
• Let’s pour 16.25 teaspoons into this container, so we can see how much sugar we’re drinking every time we have a bottle of this. Would you ever think to spoon that much sugar into a glass and drink it? Would you want your baby or child to drink that much sugar? Probably not!
• Repeat process with two or three other drinks. End with water. This is a glass of water. How much sugar do you think is in this glass of water? That’s right, there is NONE. Water has no sugar, which means it doesn’t cause cavities. In fact, it can help prevent them.
• If you have nausea or vomiting (morning sickness) it may be difficult to drink water. Drinking small sips of water throughout the day can help.
• Drinking water is good—for your oral and overall health and for your baby too! Also, rinsing your mouth with water helps neutralize the acids from nausea and vomiting.

Extending the Learning

A . Stack Sugar Cubes

Stack sugar cubes (each is about a teaspoon) in towers showing the amount of sugar she drinks in a day. Challenge her to keep the stack from getting so high it might fall over! Leave some sugar cubes for her to track her sugar drinks during the week.

B. Drinking “Flavored” Waters

Drink flavored water instead of soda pop, juice, and other sugary drinks. Add sliced strawberries, lemon or cucumber; frozen melon cubes; or mint to tap water—it tastes great and is good for your teeth and your body!