My 8 yr old ds keeps getting cavities

[MrsJewelsRae]

My older 2 kids have been cursed with bad teeth. I was very ill while pg with them and had many rounds of antibiotics, x-rays for pneumonia, collapsed lung etc and even had radiation for a VQ scan while pg with dd (suspected pulmonary embolism). Anyhow, dd had dental surgery at 3 yrs old to fill about 6 cavities (with white fillings), pull an abcessed tooth, cap 2 teeth, file and polish, etc. My older ds had his first cavity at 6 yrs old and he is now 8 and just got 3 more fillings a couple months ago. I was inspecting his teeth recently and have noticed at least 3 more holes in various teeth!!! One of them is along the gum line of his molar. This really sucks because we have NO dental insurance at all. We live in the country on well water, drink filtered water from the HFS, he rarely get juice, never drinks pop, very rarely gets candy, brushes at least twice a day with Sensodyn Pro-Namel, I buy few packaged foods, etc. Both kids breastfed till 2 ish, never had a bottle, and both have never had a flouride treatment or supps.

Pretty much the only junk food he gets is on Sunday from his Sunday School teacher. Our SS is big on handing out candy every sunday, I used to trade them candy for a Hershy kiss or a mini donut, but have gotten out of the habit for a while, tired of fighting it. I don't know what else to do, do I cut out every bit of refined sugar they have?

On top of this my MIL is SO annoying me! She looks at me like it's my fault, asks questions like "what are you feeding him" etc! I feed my kids way healthier than most people I know, yet their teeth are horrible!

I'm really considering just letting the dentist do the flouride treatment she's been bugging me about, because what I'm doing is obviously not working.

[JaneS]

Since you are in Canada, vitamin D deficiency could be a real factor. The fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, D and K are what helps the body absorb minerals from the diet but our modern diets are low in traditional foods which allowed people to grow strong bones and teeth: organ meats, pastured butter/cream/eggs, shellfish.

And just as I said in the other thread, is it possible that he has a food allergy or compromised digestion that is leading to reduced nutrient absorption?

[neptunemama]

They could just have bad teeth. Have you asked your dentist if their enamel is poor compared to other kids, or if their teeth didn't form quite right? AAM: I had horrible teeth as a kid. Cavities every time I went to the dentist. My dentist would yell at me, tell me I was awful at brushing my teeth, that I should do a better job, and why wasn't I like my sister, who has never had a cavity (even now). When I was twelve I forced my parents to take me to a different dentist. Turns out my teeth are the problem, not my dental hygiene. And every dentist I've been to since has told me my enamel didn't form correctly, leaving my teeth an easy target for cavities.

I'd personally go for the fluoride treatment unless you are super opposed to it. It could help. But I'd try and pinpoint what's wrong w/the teeth. My guess is it's not the diet and brushing, since you're being vigilant about that.

[MrsJewelsRae]

Thank you. I'm still mulling over the flouride thing. As for vitamin D deficiencies, my kids have taken a supplement fairly regularly over the past couple years. There's no evidence my older ds has allergies to foods, only getting overly friendly w/ cats and ragweed gets him stuffed up/sneezy, otherwise he is as healthy as a horse. I do suspect, in hindsight, that he had silent reflux as a baby, FWIW.

[JaneS]

How much of a D supplement? My DS needs 2000 IU per day (55lbs) to keep his blood levels at 50 during the winter, we live in MA which gets more sun than Canada. This is much more than is commonly recommended as the RDA doesn't go by blood levels or how close to equator you live.

[LionessMom]

you can have food intolerances and not have symptoms other than bad tooth enamel and/or reflux.

[beanma]

You might try introducing some xylitol products like xylitol gum. It's supposed to keep plaque from forming.

I'd consider fluoride in your case, too. We do use a fluoride paste now that the kids can spit and I let the dentist put the fluoride varnish on their teeth. I'm not a huge fan of it, but my dd1 is a very intense/sensitive kid and I just wanted her to be able to avoid cavities as long as she could because when she was younger I think it would have just been awful. She has had one now which the dentist said was due to some funky tooth formation. And that filling went amazingly well.

Does your ds brush his own teeth? Do you think he does a good job? Our dentist said that we should finish up for our kids until they can write in cursive neatly (or about 8, apparently that's a good guage for fine motor control). I still finish up every night for dd2 (almost 7), but let her brush her teeth by herself in the morning and start it at night.

FWIW, I'm under the impression that the permanent teeth formation would not have been influenced by event during pregnancy. I think events during pregnancy could affect baby teeth, though. My dd1 has some white spots on her two front permanent teeth and I asked our dentist about it and she asked if dd1 had had a high fever or been sick when she was a toddler. She said that's when the permanent teeth are forming and a fever then could leave the white spots. I was worried they were the beginning of decay, but they were just white spots.

[Alyantavid]

We're dealing with the same thing with our 8 year old. He too, was a very sick child, was diagnosed with a milk allergy at 6 and I think he got my bad teeth. I've had lots of cavities and he seems to be following that. He's had multiple cavities filled, a root canal, caps and on top of that we have to go see an ortho for his spacing issues.

We also have well water, limit all candy and junk and my kids brush and floss religiously. My 4 year old has perfect teeth too. Our dentist did say that lots of antibiotics weaken the teeth and can cause lots of cavities. So I'm assuming that, plus some genetics is the cause of our problems.