I remember many years ago hearing a dentist say he could tell the
first time he looked into a toddler's mouth whether or not the child
had been breastfed. He also indicated that the totally breastfed
baby who is a thumbsucker tends to press the thumb downward on the
tongue rather than up against the palate which bottlefeeders tend to
do. In other words, the baby approximates the position of the most
familiar nipple when sucking on the thumb. As a result he felt that
thumb-sucking breastfeeders did not have the same risk of
malocclusion as thumb-sucking bottlefeeders.
Any comments from our LN dentists? Does this make sense?
Winnie Mading RNC, IBCLC
***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html