Snack ideas for kids with braces

Of course the usual pudding, yogurt. Jell-O. Also soft cheese, muffins, bananas, apple sauce, peaches, milk shakes, smoothies. Just make sure he brushes his teeth after eating sugary stuff.

My daughter loves rice pudding when her teeth hurt although she did say the rice sometimes gets stuck but she knows how to get it out.

Alison got her braces off at the end of last school year, but there wasn't that much that she couldn't eat with minor accommodation. Her request on removal day was to go straight for a caramel apple it was the only food she had missed.  She never pulled off a bracket, so she did pretty well.

Hard fruit needed to be cut into pieces (apples, pears), and she couldn't have hard or sticky candy. She wasn't supposed to have bone-in meat or corn on the cob either, so she would eat chicken, ribs or corn with a knife. Oh, and popcorn because of the seeds. We cheated with popcorn a few times - she just watched carefully for kernels. There was a whole list, but those were the only ones that gave us issues.

What were his favorite foods that are now off the table? Maybe we can help with ways to make them OK.

I had braces, my husband had braces, both our kids had braces. We ate almost everything. Corn removed from the cob. Apples sliced. Chips, crackers, cookies in small bites and even popcorn was fine. I did avoid taffy and beef jerky but according to my children they both ate chewy candy and beef jerky when I wasn't looking... They we're fine but I did not allow them to have that at home because I didn't want them eating things that could push or pull the brackets off. As far as crunchy things, as long as they aren't pushing against the wires or brackets it is not going to hurt anything.

My DD didn't avoid much when she had braces. No popcorn and we sliced her apples and cut her corn off the cob.

That's about all we do with DD. No gum, sticky candy like gummi Bears, and she's careful with crunchy stuff. About 4 more months. She can't wait!

My son can have cheez-its, too. Anything small like that besides popcorn or peanuts/tree nuts. He also has found that he has no issue eating those pretzels thins if he breaks them into small pieces.

He likes pirate booty and veggie straws, but has to brush or use a pick after he eats them.   He brings one of those little disposable dental brush pick things in his lunch each day while at school.

He likes wine crackers---the type you use to cleanse your palate when tasting wines. They look crunchy, but they really aren't so much. I was unsure about them at first, but he says that they break in half easily and then sort of dissolve.

Like others mentioned, he eats things like cheese, yogurt, etc. Also homemade cookies that are soft and free of nuts or anything sticky.

Beyond that he eats a lot of fruit. Oodles of it. I can't keep enough fruit in the house anymore.



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My DD had braces for 2 years and after the first couple of weeks the only thing she didn't eat was popcorn. She ate tons of nachos, tacos apples, carrots. She never broke a bracket and it really wasn't even somethings we thought about.

Tell him that the first broken bracket is free for him--that you will pay for it.  The risk is there even with soft foods.  After that, if he wants to eat something on the No List, he will pay if a bracket breaks.  DH eats Doritos and tortilla chips, but much smaller bites or breaks them up.  Funny, I've never heard that you have to pay for a broken bracket.  Seems to me that $5,500 (average cost here) ought to come with one or two breakages covered.

I have one half way done her braces and one who is totally done. They have eaten whatever they wanted. Never broke anything. They cut corn off the cob. The younger one cuts meat off ribs. With the beginning wire that is really soft and flexible we avoided really sticky or hard things. It was recommended not to eat anything, soft crackers even. Geesh!