pressure to wean due to tooth decay

[tnmom66]

My baby is 16 months old. I am under pressure (from 2 dentists, and the baby's father and others) to wean her, at least at night, but she is resisting my gentle efforts.

I don't want her to have tooth troubles. I was a little lax about brushing till I found out about the backs of her top front teeth last month (classic location for nursing/bottle caries). I am now diligent about brushing 3 times a day, using Xylitol, ACT fluoride rinse (applied with toothbrush) and MI paste to help remineralization. I'm hoping they will be remineralized to the point where I can maintain them without further treatment till they fall out naturally.

I am open to nursing "on demand" night and day till at least age 2 1/2. I want to let her decide what she needs and when at this age. It feels right to me.

I am also reading up on the dental health forum.

Lydia

[ssh]

Breastmilk doesn't cause cavities, not cleaning off other food does. There are so many other health benefits to extended nursing.

[Anglyn]

My dentist said the same thing, it's bs.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/tooth-decay.html

[Anglyn]

Did you know cavities are contagious? My fil has horrible teeth and shared his drinks with my kids, I"m sure that's where they got their tooth decay.

http://www.chc.ucsf.edu/archives/too...contagious.htm

[JMJ]

We're going through something similar. My baby's tooth decay is caused by getting her teeth as she was trying to learn how to crawl, face planting, and chipping a tooth. Thankfully, my husband is supporting me in continuing to night nurse, and most other people don't know.

Cavities are caused by 3 coinciding factors: bacteria in the mouth, sugars for them to eat, and inadequate minerals or mineral absorption. Changing any of these will help. Breastmilk does contain sugars, but because of how a baby latches on, the milk goes right down the baby's throat in most cases without touching the teeth. Breastfeeding really is not the same as bottlefeeding. That said, it is possible that sometimes, some breastmilk does touch the teeth, thus contributing to the problem, but I really think that other factors make a bigger difference.

It's nice for everyone telling you to wean that they can talk about it without having to deal with it. I'm sure that by now, if your daughter didn't need to nurse at night, you would be happy to not do it. You would be the one who would have to force a separation between you and her. I don't know as you could do it without CIO. You would be the one to have to listen to her cries, knowing that she needs you yet refusing to give yourself to her.

I can just imagine the hell we would all go through to night wean prematurely. I'm afraid of what that would do to our relationship, to let her know every day for a year of her life that I'll be there for her whenever she needs me only to abandon her when she's hungry in the middle of the night.

What we all want is that we don't night wean and don't have to have dental surgery. I would hate to not night wean and then have dental surgery, but I could live with it. If I night weaned, and we avoided dental surgery, I might feel justified, and it would help me stave off my guilt at putting our family through that. Night weaning doesn't guarantee that you'll be able to avoid dental surgery, though, and without diet changes, I don't think that the cavity will stop growing. If I night weaned, and we still had to go through general anesthesia for dental surgery, I don't think I could live with myself. I would have put my daughter through all of that for nothing.

We're not night weaning. We are not sitting ducks either. We're brushing 3x/day with xylitol. We've changed our diets, exploring traditional foods. This website really helped us: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co...oth-decay.html

Good luck, mamma. I hope you're able to have an honest discussion with your DH.

[tnmom66]

Thanks, JMJ--I feel the same. I know that the way my baby nurses, she lets milk pool in her mouth-it dribbles out a lot. My other kids didn't do that. Some nights she does better than others about not nursing so much, but I can't refuse her.

I do think it is connected to the breastmilk because it is behind her front teeth. I hope the changes I make will help.

Lydia

[lurve]

we went through the same thing. i did NOT wean. my daughter had to get four caps on her four front teeth and four baby root canals. i think it is just because those teeth were crappy. her two year molars are perfect and no problem there so i think it was a "stage." we still nurse to sleep and she is three.

[tnmom66]

Did you do anything differently to prevent decay in the other teeth? Did you try to remineralize the teeth and avoid the work?

[Conifer]

My first son had issues with his baby front teeth as well. I just brushed them and went right along nursing as usual. I was taking him to a dentist regularly to have them checked out. I nursed him for about 1.5 years and he self weaned. He is 9 now, has adult teeth and no cavities. The dentist told me that some kids just have really weak baby teeth. Another thing: we were living in the country and drinking well water. Even though he was EBF, because I wasn't drinking Floride, he wasn't getting Floride.

[averlee]

I think maybe you have some crazy dentists? My dentist and dental hygienist were quick to point out, separately, that breastfeeding is good for kids teeth orthodontics, breastmilk has antibacterial properties that limit bacteria in the mouth, and breastmilk supplies all the nutrients necessary for healthy tooth growth.

[tnmom66]

So, Averlee, what do they say about tooth decay in breastfeeding toddlers? I am glad they support breastfeeding. I think there are too many benefits to give up, and my baby's teeth are decayed in spite of, not because of, breastmilk.

Lydia

[langdonslady]

If it helps you to know this, my daughter wasn't weaned until 2.5, and she has perfect teeth. My son, who is now nearly 2.5, has bad tooth decay across all four of his upper front teeth, and both received the same breastfeeding and tooth brushings. As a matter of fact, oddly enough, when I had my daughter we were on well water with no fluoride. When I had my son we were on fluoridated city water.

As for giving fluoride rinse to a child that young, you may want to read the label warnings, because children under a certain age can't help but swallow it, and the rinses contain even more fluoride than the toothpastes that aren't safe for kids under 3 years because they tend to swallow some.

My son, who was exposed to fluoride, had his teeth brushed, and was breastfed, has classic "bottle mouth" decay. My daughter, who didn't encounter fluoride until after 1 year old when we moved, was breastfed, had her teeth brushed, and has absolutely no issues. So it's definitely not due to breastmilk being equivalent to pasteurized, dead, cow milk. Live breastmilk doesn't cause tooth decay. Now, if all she were getting was frozen breastmilk, where the live probiotics had been killed by freezing, there might even be a case for the breastmilk causing problems.

Good luck, because fighting against all that around you, when you don't have other people in real life siding with you, is terribly challenging.
See if you can look up your local La Leche League chapter and join. They may be able to educate your hubby, and make the difference for you in being able to persevere.

[averlee]

Lydia, my dental hygenist, who is a mom of 3 and a really nice lady, said that tooth decay and cavities are unrelated to breastfeeding, (and sometimes even appear to be unrelated to dental hygiene -brushing/flossing is good but some people who do it still get cavities while some who never or rarely floss get none) and that the correlation goes the opposite way- the more/longer a child breastfeeds, the better their dental health will be over their lifetime. I think she'd say if you hadn't/didn't nurse, the decay would be much worse.

[annettemarie]

Moving to Breastfeeding Beyond Infancy.

[claddaghmom]

It seemed almost overnight my DD had a big, well it was like a roughly shaped hole in her front tooth. I was so so sad.

I started taking a whole food-based prenatal vitamin, 2,000 units of D3, and a cal/mag supplement. It was coincidental...I was doing it b/c I was pregnant.

About two weeks later all we could see was a faint line/yellowishness. Her tooth had been restored.

I posted a frantic thread on MDC about her poor tooth, but later on I started thinking...sheesh these are her milk teeth! Some of my siblings lost their teeth around 3yrs! Is it really worth it to expose her to mercury amalgrams, drilling, local anes. and flouride??

[1babysmom]

Here are my thoughts (c&p'd from an older thread since I'm 1 handed right now...)

I never advocate weaning, but I do share our experience now for anyone who might want to take it into consideration. My DD1 was kind of our "shocker" into dental issues. We'd taken great care of her gums and teeth from the start (spiffies wipes, xylitol, regular brushing/flossing, rinsing, MI Paste, etc), she has a good diet, etc. I didn't really take into account the genetic possibilities. At 19-20 months I started noticing some issues with her teeth, and when we went in at 22 months, sure enough, she had lots of decay on nearly all of her little teeth at the time (leading to oral surgery a few months later). I was devistated and felt like a failure (though honestly, with our dental routine, not sure what more I could have done?). The thing was, we saw 2 different dentists to get 2 different opinions, and BOTH of them said the same thing...they commented on how the decay on several of her teeth had slowed or nearly stopped, probably about a couple months before. They asked if I had done anything different, but I didn't DARE tell them the ONLY change we'd made...which was nightweaning. We had nightweaned pretty much exactly a couple of months before, right around 20 months (because I got pregnant and it was very uncomfortable for me at nights...so the reason was totally unrelated to dental issues).

Anyway, my kids are definitely genetically predisposed to dental problems from my DH's side of the family (ironically, SIL had to have the same teeth worked on as a baby, and my other SIL's little girl, a year younger than my DD, had the EXACT same procedure done on her teeth- same teeth, same oral surgery, same amount of decay, etc). That has led us to choose to nightwean around 18 months with our kiddos...though I'd still NEVER nightwean them before 12 months, and even after that we take it slow. But I do believe it had an effect in our situation. I hate when people say there's absolutely no connection because it just adds to how horrible I felt/feel about my DD's teeth (which are now great, BTW, and so far DD2 hasn't had any issues...she nightweaned pretty much naturally around 14 months so we went with that instead of waiting...but her teeth are great so far). Clearly it CAN be an issue for some.

For the record though, DD1 is still nursing and she just turned 4 years old. No plans to wean her...she'll do it when she's ready. As will all of our children. But we just choose to have a hand in the night nursing.

[claddaghmom]

1babysmom, that makes sense to me, though. For example, when I say DD nurses at night, I mean that she will nurse with a strong latch, fall asleep and clamp down. Then I have to put my pinkie finger in, unlatch and remove my nipple.

Some kids might suckle for a long time before falling all the way asleep, or they might not latch strongly, allowing the nipple to move downwards towards the front teeth.

Also, some mamas might have a steady flow or good letdown, so the child routinely falls asleep with milk sitting in the mouth. Some kids also do this with food and liquid...my now 10yo sister would take a swallow of water and hold it in her mouth forever as a toddler. We were always telling her to swallow her water lol.


And then of course, what about length of time and frequency? Some babies nurse once or twice, some nurse every hour!