Cavities - should I night wean?

[thismama]

My daughter (almost 3) had her two front teeth EXTRACTED today because of bad decay. We've known about the cavities since late last year but the only dentist I have coverage for had a wait this long, and I was under the impression that waiting was no big deal since the cavities were not causing her pain. We went in today, I thought to get the teeth capped, but they were actually pulled out instead.

I'm kind of in shock, and I'm sure I'll have other questions. But for now I'm wondering:

Should I night wean?

What about nursing to sleep? This is what we've always done, but the dentist said I need to brush her teeth after nursing. Kind of defeats the whole TO SLEEP thing, kwim?

[newbymom05]

: I'm interested to hear what others have to say. We're trying the Jay Gordon night weaning thing since we found out our 14 mo old has decay. I agree--brushing afterwards seems incredibly counterproductive at 2 am.

So far nightweaning has sucked for both of us--I"m actually getting less sleep since I now have to give backrubs forever rather than nurse for 2 minutes. But it seems like it has to be better than GA'ing an under-2 yr old...

[kehliouise]

everything i have read says breastmilk is noncariogenic. check out the article called big bad cavaties.
http://www.mothering.com/articles/gr.../cavities.html
also the thread on curing cavaties with nutriton.
you need to find ways to remineralize your childs teeth

[thismama]

Thanks for the info! That big thread is a bit daunting to me tho. How does one remineralize teeth?

[kehliouise]

we are trying all sorts of things that have been suggested to remineralize our son's teeth. calcarea phos. tablets (three twice a day), CLO (right now 1 tsp a day), thinking about adding raw milk, ive stepped up my nutrition. we switched to toothsoap rather than toothpaste (glycerin in paste coats teeth and doesn't allow saliva to remineralize teeth)...we had him drinking green tea because it has lots of fluoride but then i wondered why i was letting him drink fluoride if i was opposed to brushing with it. (our dentist wants us to brush his teeth with 1.1% fluoride toothpaste) It is important to get lots of vitamin D in the diet for remineralization. I think that is all we are doing for now.

[kehliouise]

also...i just went through getting eight crowns on his teeth under gen. anesth. i started doing all this research afterward...i don't want to have to do that again. having said that i will also say that i refuse to night nurse. i guess every child is different, but mine nurses for comfort more than nutrition im sure and i think it is wrong for me to deny him comfort if i can give it to him. i would rather all his teeth rot out than him not trust me to respond to his needs. but you have to do what is comfortable for you.

[newbymom05]

Originally Posted by kehliouise

also...i just went through getting eight crowns on his teeth under gen. anesth. i started doing all this research afterward...i don't want to have to do that again. having said that i will also say that i refuse to night nurse. i guess every child is different, but mine nurses for comfort more than nutrition im sure and i think it is wrong for me to deny him comfort if i can give it to him. i would rather all his teeth rot out than him not trust me to respond to his needs. but you have to do what is comfortable for you.

I'm sorry--you refuse to night nurse or you refuse to NOT night nurse?

[kehliouise]

refuse to stop night nursing. i accidently left the not out of that...ooops...that sounded confusing didnt it.

[thismama]

So, I told her Dad I am leaning toward not nightweaning and he is horrified. Anyone have links to studies to support continued night nursing?

[kehliouise]

Im not sure about links but i think i do remember reading something that might be helpful in the womanly art of breastfeeding book. (LLLI) There might be resources on their website. i remember it talking about how breast milk is noncariogenic and all that.

[mysticmomma]

We brush at night, and then nothing but bm or water afterwards. Food sitting on the teeth and the sugars in bm together are worse. bm alone is not bad.

[TudoBem]

Originally Posted by mysticmomma

We brush at night, and then nothing but bm or water afterwards. Food sitting on the teeth and the sugars in bm together are worse. bm alone is not bad.

This is my understanding as well.
I believe that if you brush very thoroughly and as pp said, only water or bm after you should be okay.
If there is already decay, however, then the bm can worsen that. We nightweaned until we had our ds' surgery, then went back to night nursing afterwards.
We also apply some ACT fluoride rinse with a toothbrush after we brush. I dont' like using it but I fear that his teeth are weak and I don't want to risk any more surgeries or dental work at least until he's much older.

[KCMommy]

Sorry to hear you are going through the same thing as me. In June I took DD (15 mo then) to the dentist and it was recommended that I take her to have her front top teeth capped. The procedure would involve travelling over 800 km to the city and putting her under general anaesthsia.

DH flat out refuses to let her undergo the procedure, unless it causes her pain, and I am also scared to death of the GA at her age and size. So we adopted a "wait and see" approach with vigilant tooth care. DH was worried that my excessive brushing might actually be damaging her enamel even more so I have cut back to 2 or 3 times a day.

I tried cutting back on night weaning with zero success. It is so much a part of our lives and no amount of snuggling or back rubbing at 2:00am would take the place of nursing for her (right now, anyway). I should mention that she has never had a bottle, doesn't eat much refined sugar and only drinks water and milk from her sippy cup, so I really think that night nursing must have some impact, perhaps combined with weak enamel?

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I understand how hard this can be. For us it has been a losing battle. DD is 18 mo now and I don't expect those top incisors to make it to her second birthday.

Here are her teeth. The rate of decay progression is terrifiying.

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/1...ession2cs6.jpg

[Lilcrunchie]

NAK but there is a good yahoo group called veryyoungkidsteeth that was a big help to me w/ DS when he had his first cavity.

Look into xylitol as well. Lots of info on the veryyoungkidsteeth group. Strep mutans causes the decay...some people are just more succeptible. It is basically an infectious disease. If you kill of the strep mutans and keep it from having sugar to feed on, it is a big help.

We use xylitol toothpaste and gum w/ DS.

[usmcwfe]

I'm in the same shoes..

we just took our 2 1/2 year old to the dentist yesterday and we found out we need to put two caps on molars and have her front teeth repaired. It will be done with consious sedation and a pappoos and I feel terrible about it. But I don't know what else to do. We are still night nursing, although she is slowly decreasing the amount of nursing she is doing. I'm terrified that she will be afraid and struggle. I voiced all of my concerns to the dentist and he allowed me to watch them treat another child who was getting the same treatment more or less. When I saw her on the chair in the pappoos I started crying. But the little girl seemed to be alright. She was very sleepy but not knocked out.. All of this is scary and you'd think that stuff like this only happens to kids with bottles of formula in their mouth all night long. But we're going ahead with the treatment AND we'll continue to night nurse and brush her teeth. We use Xylitol and Spiffees toothwipes and we've noticed the decay slow down in her front teeth because of it. But the molars are not doing well and because they will be around for a longer time before they fall out, we're fixing them. Finding a denstist who is honest with you, and is conservative with treatment helps a lot. We have to drive a few hours to get there but its worth it.. Good luck to you. It is very scary and horrible to think about your child going through something like this. But we're all trying to make the best decision for our children and those decisions are very hard sometimes.