Night nursing and tooth decay?

[momma_bear]

My 16 month-old daughter is no longer nursing during the day but nurses at bed time and then a LOT during the early hours of the morning especially. It affects my sleep (which is something for another thread LOL) but I don't mind if she needs it right now. However, I'm starting to really worry about the possibility of tooth decay if she's nursing so much at night....is this a big risk? Should I limit the nursing to bedtime (before tooth brushing) and then only offer water during the night at this point? I'm sure I would suffer initial protest for a few days but she'd probably be OK after that.

Thoughts? Advice? Experience? Thanks!

[TiredX2]

No, I would definately not encourage night weaning in a 16 month old if you have day weaned. How would she get enough bmilk?

That said, is there some reason you had to day wean her?

Is there a specific reason you are concerned about her teeth? Because bmilk generally actually strengthens teeth and encourages dental health. Some kids have naturallly weak teeth and so have problems even when bfeeding, but most children will not have problems with nursing during the evening. What is more of a problem is other foods that sit on the teeth. I would make sure you brush really, really well before bed and then not worry until you have a specific concern.

Breastfeeding is not the same problem as drinking a bottle during the night for a number of reasons:

1) the nipple tends to be pulled back in the mouth while nursing so the milk does not simply sit on the front teeth

2) the milk does not flow if the child is not actively nursing. with bottles, the milk can continue flowing even after the child stops swallowing. With nursing, they suck, get the milk and then swallow--- it doesn't sit on the teeth

3) bmilk is naturally good for tooth enamel!

I hope this was coherent--- I am tired AND watching 30rock, lol

[momma_bear]

[QUOTE=TiredX2;15967988]No, I would definately not encourage night weaning in a 16 month old if you have day weaned. How would she get enough bmilk?

That said, is there some reason you had to day wean her?

Is there a specific reason you are concerned about her teeth? [QUOTE]

I day weaned her because she had significantly dropped on her growth chart (to 3rd percentile in weight) and the doctor felt she needed more food. She really showed no interest in any food until I day weaned her. I know there's lots of fat in bmilk but I was concerned that at this age bmilk does not provide everything she needs (iron, fiber, etc). I weaned gradually but it wasn't until I entirely dropped daytime feeds that she actually started eating anything.

No, there's no specific reason I'm concerned about the teeth. She's not showing signs of tooth decay or anything. It's just that I was reading a post on another forum about a mom who was night nursing and her 2-yr-old child had SIGNIFICANT tooth decay on his lower front teeth and her theory was the night nursing...so of course I started worrying about it!

[tibeca]

Lower tooth decay is unlikely to have been caused by what is referred to as "baby bottle mouth". Baby bottle mouth is most often found on the insides of molars, and front surfaces of front teeth. Having said that, breastmilk is not detrimental to teeth. Poor brushing, inappropriate diet and genetics are far greater indicators for caries.