Water is the best between-meal beverage choice for children’s growing bodies and healthy teeth. Making water available throughout the day helps wash away food and dilute acids that can cause tooth decay. Having water visible and available makes it easy to remind children to hydrate. Children can also practice getting water themselves and following thirst signals from their bodies.
Application documentation
In your REACH Oral Health application, you will upload documentation of meeting the water availability best practice along with offering toothbrushing once a day, training teachers/staff who help with toothbrushing, and including oral health in the facility’s written policy.
| REACH Application Documentation | Go NAPSACC Best Practice |
| Up to two photos* that show how the facility makes water visible and freely available throughout the day, indoors and outdoors for preschool children. This may be photos of a water station set up indoors and outside, a photo of children’s reusable water bottles, etc *Photos will only be used for review purposes unless the facility gives permission for them to be shared publicly. | OH8 Drinking water is always visible and freely available to children, both indoors and outdoors |
Tips for your documentation:
- Photos must show how water is visible and available to children indoors and outdoors. One photo of children’s reusable water bottles meets the requirement because they can be taken outside. For other arrangements, like water coolers/cups , two photos will be needed to show the set-up for indoors and for outdoors.
- Photo(s) only needs to show the set-up for one preschool-aged class.
- The water set-up shown is currently in use and the photo is from past 12 months.
- Photos will only be used for review purposes unless the facility gives permission for them to be shared publicly.
Example documentation:
Coming soon…
REACH Recognition 