night nursing a 4 y.o and cavities...

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post #1 of 5

10/15/09 at 10:31pm

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1,732 Posts. Joined 7/2005
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This is for my friend, who is still night nursing her almost 4 year old. She totally wants to keep nursing, but her dentist tells her that it's the cause of the terrible problems with cavities that her daughter is having. She has had to have major dental surgery, and will need another one soon. This kid has a TON of cavities. Her same aged friend, who also nurses at night, is also having problems with cavities. My friend doesn't want to believe it's from nursing! She doesn't want to night wean. I figure you wise mamas would have some insight.
tia!

Breastmilk doesn't cause tooth decay. If the childs teeth aren't cleaned well before bed the food still on the teeth can cause cavities. My DD had a lot of cavities on her top teeth. We were having trouble getting them clean enough. We got them fixed with her under sedation. Since then we've made sure her teeth are really clean before bed and we haven't seen any more. It's been a year and she nurses.

post #4 of 5

10/18/09 at 8:20pm

1,034 Posts. Joined 1/2007
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I'd recommend the yahoogroup: veryyoungkidsteeth.

I'd also say that my daughter has three of her teeth capped under general anesthesia when she was a year and a half. My dentist is less than supportive of night nursing. I really believe that if the child is going to bed with clean teeth (a thorough brushing after which the child may eat nothing and drink only water), that milk won't rot the teeth. For us, other things (introducing fluoride, mostly

) are what finally arrested the decay.