b.f. before dental work need answer quick

[loofa]

Hi Sweet Mamas,
My little one's dental work is scheduled for Thursday morning and it's now Monday night so I'm down to the wire here. He'll be two next month, still nurses. His ped dentist is going to use versed to sedate him and of course said not to give him any food or liquids for a long time before hand. I have seen people mention here that it's o.k. to nurse (just don't tell the dentist) but I cannot find a thread that goes into detail about this. If anyone can give me more info. I would sure appreciate it. I'm leaning toward nursing him as it just seems heartless to deny him that comfort before such an intense day.
Also, I asked a question last month and never thanked the people who responded - thank you thank you.
-loofa

[simonee]

We had Versed treatment a year ago. The rule here was 4 hours for food and bf and milk, but 2 hours for "clear liquids" like water and 7Up :

We bf'ed about 2 hours before treatment without problems, but we did lie about it (they'd already sent us home once for being honest )

I think if 7Up is good, so is bm. Smilemomma says that bm is a body liquid like saliva,and therefore doesn't require rules, only most dentists don't know that. As far as I know, she's never restricted it on any patient, and she's never run into trouble.

hth.

Good luck!!

[loofa]

thanks Simone

Thank you so much for your reply. I'm getting very nervous here. Our dentist doesn't allow you in the room with your little one, but lets you watch through a glass wall. I'm suddenly filled with doubts about that now that I have read of mamas who not only got to be in the room, but got to hold their babies! That's what I want! But our dentist is very experienced with kids and she's giving us a discount on the cost and the proceedure is scheduled for two days from now so so it seems a bit late in the game to be having all these doubts. Oh, now I'm just babbling. It's all I can think about right now.

[simonee]

Oh man your appointment is done! How did it go? HOw is your little baby? Was it worst for you ?

Did you get to be there? A bit after the fact maybe, but I've seen many stories here in which parents weren't allowed in but the dentist was still careful and gentle.

[loofa]

didn't do it

O.k,
so the day before our appointment to get the major scary work done I got an appointment with a different dentist, just for a second opinion because I was stressing so much. We got to the new dentist's office, it FULL of kids running everywhere. While we were waiting I worked hard to keep my little one from running into the treatment area but when the dentist came out to meet me he said to let him go, that his whole office is child proof and that they can run anywhere they want to. He was a older man who has been practicing pediactric dentistry for a long long time. Despite his obviously very busy practice, he took the time to show me around his office and talked to me extensively. The treatment area is one big open space with bench after bench all lined up for the kids to be worked on. They can all see eachother. There was even a dog walking about wearing a cape that declared it to be a "therapy" dog. The dog, Madison, would jump up on the bench to show the little ones how it's done.
While I talked with the dentist, assistants played with my toddler, showing him the dog, the gerbils, the nitrous mask...getting him used to things. even looking at his teeth playfully.
The dentist told me all about how he used to strap the children down in the papoose and work on them even if they were crying and screaming, just like he was taught to do but after ten years of this he got fed up and started working another way.
He doesn't use any sedatives, just nitrous. I can be right there. He let's the children take their time...meaning it might take several appointments before they are comfortable with things, but they won't be screaming/crying when he works on them, and I do believe that he charges for actual work done, not for the getting used to things time.

Needless to say, I cancelled my appointment with the dentist who wouldn't let me in the room and uses the papoose. We have to wait until next month to get worked on and he is going to do very minimal work at that as he believes in being as un-invasive as possible.
So things are looking up. I'll let you know what I think after our next appointment, but for now it looks like we found a good dentist. Oh, and he is totally pro-breastfeeding (although he did say that the endless nursing while sleeping thing sustains tooth exposure to sugars and that it's better to disconnect before falling back to sleep). If anyone in the Portland Oregon area is reading this, his name is Dr. Pike - if anyone has experience with him I'd love to hear about it.

-Loofa

[simonee]

Wow.

Lots of West Coast mamas are going to be very happy reading this. But maybe none as happy as you right now. Dentists like this are very rare, I think.
Congratulations