In a similar vein to Kim Balzer's recent post about her 18 mo old child's
teeth, here is my experience.

Son breastfed for 22 1/2 months.  I never wiped out his mouth after a
breastfeeding, though we brushed from 12-14 mo on after evening meal of
solids and in AM after breakfast.

At age 3, he was evaluated by a dentist and had his first teeth cleaning.
Dentist reported he had perfectcurvature of the oral cavity and then asked,
"how long was he breastfed?"  When I told him, he said, "I am not
surprised.  Breastfeeding does great things for the mouth!" [That was in
1973; so at least some dentists seem to know something about
breastfeeding.]

My son never had a cavity in his mouth until he was 13 years old!  I doubt
this was a result of long-term breastfeeding, but rather of the kinds of
things pre-teens and teens want to eat (in spite of their mothers'
efforts!) and other behaviors, like not brushing as carefully as when I was
doing it for him!



"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.com/~kga/lactation.html
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