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Dentist says my nighttime nursing of toddler is putting her at risk for cavities - help! - Page 2

post #21 of 35
3/22/13 at 7:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Asiago View Post

You are right, breast milk alone is not cariogenic.

It sounds as though your dentist may be including night time breastfeeding into bottle rot diagnosis.Somehow dentists and doctors have twisted this to include breastfeeding. Yet in studies of dental enamel, breastmilk does not erode it, which leads to decay and caries. Teeth were actually placed in various solutions at a university lab study and there was zero erosion on enamel from BM, however cow's milk eroded it. AAP has stated that breastmilk is not cariogenic as well as various studies such as this one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10197331

 

Were you children low birth weight, preemie or did they have severe reflux?

Low birth weight and premature babies can have enamel defects which may put them at risk for decay. Per reflux, it can erode enamel leading to decay. I would imagine breastmilk is often blamed when stomach acid is the culprit.

Sucrose and  heat treated starches with sucrose (cereals) are very cariogenic.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/120/4/e944.full

 

If your child teethed on hard objects and damaged enamel, chips and such, the risk of decay is increased too.

My own adecdote, my son at 11 months teethed on the metal nozzle of the garden hose and chipped enamel on two teeth (one of my regrets). Almost two years later, the brown discoloration on the tip of one is completely gone and the other is nearly gone. I still BF on demand all night.

 

Regarding flouride, if your local water is flouridated with at least .3 ppm flouride, your child likely does not need additional flouride (per AAP). I, like you, do not use a flouridated paste for brushing my child's teeth.

 

I do feel it is important to get teeth as clean as possible before bed though, so if there is any way to increase the brushing per your nursling, it may be worth it.

 

This is really helpful information that I have been wondering about myself.  Thank you so much for sharing!

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post #22 of 35
3/23/13 at 3:58pm
You are so welcome.
post #23 of 35
3/23/13 at 4:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbiJoy View Post

I know this is taboo to say, and I fully support night nursing and extended nursing... but all the kids that I know that nursed into toddlerhood and beyond had dental issues with their milk teeth.  My son self-weaned at 31 months and had minor cavities.  He got them filled without even numbing cause they were that minor.  He was only 2.5 at the time!  I felt pretty awful but was glad I caught it.  He nursed at night, but not a lot.  I have 2 other friends who nursed older children.  My one friend also nursed until just after 2.5 (but he child night nursed a lot) and she has had a lot of dental issues.  She has some gold teeth by age 3.  My other friend nursed until age 4 (I don't know if/when he weaned cause we moved and lost touch), but by age 4 he already had 2 root canals and many fillings.  Both of these friends did not give juices or sugary foods and brushed often.  I have dozens of friends with kids that did not do extended night nursing and not one of them has had to have a filling.  Not even ones who don't practice proper dental hygiene.

 

I know what the articles say.  My experiences and the experiences of my friends have been different.  Do I personally believe extended night nursing leads to more cavities?  Yes.  From what I have seen I do.  Once my 1 year old gets more teeth (he only has 5 front ones) I will clean his teeth after night nursing.  I recommend to friends if they extended nurse and night nurse to do dental checkups at least twice a year starting at age 2.  I know not all dentists will see kids before 3 or 4, but I would look for one who does.  Not that it will necessarily be bad for their dental health, but it's something to keep up on imo to do what you can to make sure.  After all I have seen, I personally see it as being in a higher risk group.

This has been so in my experience as well. I also have a family member who is a dental hygienist and most of the children they see with dental problems are the ones who night nursed... that's not a very popular opinion though so a lot of them keep their mouth shut.

I think a lot of it has to do with when the teeth come in too though. My son is 1 and still has no teeth so I'm sure he'd be fine night nursing, but he's slept through the night since he was 9 months so I'm just going with it. I'm interested to see how his teeth turn out. 

post #24 of 35
4/3/13 at 5:16pm
I have to disagree with this. I have a hard time believing that milk produced by human bodies could somehow damage the human consuming it in this way. I have breastfeed all 3 of my children for many years past infancy and 1 had cavities, 1 has none and the third has some more decay than just a cavity (which we are reversing thanks to re-mineralization). I believe that the cavities/decay is due to genetics, vitamin deficiencies, etc. and not human milk. I was not breastfed and have always had a mouth riddled with cavities, even though I take very good care of my teeth, don't drink soda or sugary drinks, etc. this is just always the way it has been for me. both my parents have had problems with their teeth. I could be wrong, as I am not a dental professional. These are just my beliefs.
post #25 of 35
4/3/13 at 5:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Asiago View Post

You are right, breast milk alone is not cariogenic.
It sounds as though your dentist may be including night time breastfeeding into bottle rot diagnosis.Somehow dentists and doctors have twisted this to include breastfeeding. Yet in studies of dental enamel, breastmilk does not erode it, which leads to decay and caries. Teeth were actually placed in various solutions at a university lab study and there was zero erosion on enamel from BM, however cow's milk eroded it. AAP has stated that breastmilk is not cariogenic as well as various studies such as this one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10197331

Were you children low birth weight, preemie or did they have severe reflux?
Low birth weight and premature babies can have enamel defects which may put them at risk for decay. Per reflux, it can erode enamel leading to decay. I would imagine breastmilk is often blamed when stomach acid is the culprit.
Sucrose and  heat treated starches with sucrose (cereals) are very cariogenic.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/120/4/e944.full

If your child teethed on hard objects and damaged enamel, chips and such, the risk of decay is increased too.
My own adecdote, my son at 11 months teethed on the metal nozzle of the garden hose and chipped enamel on two teeth (one of my regrets). Almost two years later, the brown discoloration on the tip of one is completely gone and the other is nearly gone. I still BF on demand all night.

Regarding flouride, if your local water is flouridated with at least .3 ppm flouride, your child likely does not need additional flouride (per AAP). I, like you, do not use a flouridated paste for brushing my child's teeth.

I do feel it is important to get teeth as clean as possible before bed though, so if there is any way to increase the brushing per your nursling, it may be worth it.

This is exactly what I was going to say but put much better. Dentists are often misinformed on this issue.

The only thing I will add is that the mechanics of nursing come into play, too. Breastmilk from a bottle would be totally different. Because if the way babies hold the breast in their mouths the milk doesn't bathe the entire mouth the way it does drinking from a cup or a bottle and it doesn't pool in their mouths the same way.

http://kellymom.com/health/baby-health/tooth-decay/
post #26 of 35
4/9/13 at 9:03am
I am worried about my son's dental health. Our city does not fluoridate our water. Any advice?

He is 16 months. We do brush his teeth but not directly before bed. He still nurses to sleep and then wakes up to nurse a good 5 or 6 times in the night. We're working on that, but for now the advise to brush his teeth after he night nurses is just not feasible!
post #27 of 35
4/9/13 at 9:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichelleZB View Post

I am worried about my son's dental health. Our city does not fluoridate our water. Any advice?

He is 16 months. We do brush his teeth but not directly before bed. He still nurses to sleep and then wakes up to nurse a good 5 or 6 times in the night. We're working on that, but for now the advise to brush his teeth after he night nurses is just not feasible!

 

I wouldn't worry. There is a lot of controversy around fluoridating water anyway. I grew up in a town without fluoride (as did everyone around me) and no one I knew had any extraordinary dental problems. I actually got my first cavity shortly after moving to Toronto when I turned 20. I know the two are unrelated, but it's a funny coincidence. 

 

There is still plenty of fluoride in bottled water and toothpaste.

post #28 of 35
4/9/13 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichelleZB View Post

I am worried about my son's dental health. Our city does not fluoridate our water. Any advice?

He is 16 months. We do brush his teeth but not directly before bed. He still nurses to sleep and then wakes up to nurse a good 5 or 6 times in the night. We're working on that, but for now the advise to brush his teeth after he night nurses is just not feasible!

This is about like us,but our water is fluoridated. Brushing more often (im lucky if she lets me brush them once a day!) or not night nursing is just not feasible right now, so I'm letting myself off the hook.

I don't really know much about the controversy around fluoridated water, but my impression is there's not actually much controversy among mainstream scientists about the safety and effectiveness?
post #29 of 35
4/9/13 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rrrrrachel View Post


This is about like us,but our water is fluoridated. Brushing more often (im lucky if she lets me brush them once a day!) or not night nursing is just not feasible right now, so I'm letting myself off the hook.

I don't really know much about the controversy around fluoridated water, but my impression is there's not actually much controversy among mainstream scientists about the safety and effectiveness?

 

I haven't looked into the scientific aspect much but I recall hearing that fluoride is a byproduct of aluminum production and very expensive to dispose of properly so companies convinced the government to instead purchase it from them and put it in drinking water. 

post #30 of 35
4/9/13 at 5:31pm
That . . . Doesn't sound right.
post #31 of 35
4/9/13 at 7:15pm
It doesn't, does it? I hope I'm wrong because I've been drinking it for about a decade... but the rumor was that it was going to start getting phased out because North American manufacturing has all moved to China and they no longer need to dispose of it.
post #32 of 35
4/9/13 at 7:28pm
Some very cursory research leads me to believe that the kind of fluoride used in manufacturing aluminum and the kind used in drinking water are different. Also, fluoridation takes place all over the world, not just in the us. The WHO recommends it.
post #33 of 35
4/10/13 at 7:12am

It seems it's been banned in almost all of Europe... only 5% of the world is fluoridated and most of that is in the US and Canada. More and more places in Canada are banning it also. Even if it's perfectly healthy, now that I think about it, the compulsory medication is kind of annoying. 

post #34 of 35
4/10/13 at 7:23am
I don't know that it's accurate to say it's banned. It has been discontinued in some countries and some countries fluoridate salt instead.
post #35 of 35
4/10/13 at 7:41am

In Windsor, the only town's document's I'm able to see on my phone at the moment, the by-law was amended to "require the local board to discontinue the fluoridation system". 

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Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Breastfeeding › Breastfeeding Beyond Infancy › Dentist says my nighttime nursing of toddler is putting her at risk for cavities - help!