Lisa Jones brought up the ADA statement about liquids pooling in the baby's
mouth and dental caries.  Why don't they know the difference between juices
and breask milk?

Part of the problem is that they are barking up the wrong tree.


From what some researchers have determined lately the problem seems more to
do with tooth enamel and the effect a stress during the pregnancy on the
formation of the primary teeth.  And an older article I remember reading said
 that in thye particular group of babies they studied the breastfed infants
had a higher incidence of caries than the non-breastfed.  Now I didn't like
reading that BUT it went on to say that these breastfed infants had weaned by
six months of age.  The cavities were not occurring and being detected until
after the babies had started eating a large amount of solids.  So how could
the breast milk pooling in the mouth have anything to do with the caries?
 Many infants teeth have not emerged by six months of age or perhaps two to
four teeth at most.

An article I read last summer stated that this carie problem occurs in less
than 5% of the population.  So many of us know that we have nursed our
infants well into the second or third year of life even at bedtime or naptime
and found our children have not developed caries.  Some of our children do
and all the stories we have heard or lived through with these children while
seeking help for them have had an impact.  But these breastfeed children
probably fall in that 5% of all children who develop the caries.

It would seem that the ADA has not done a thorough job of critically reading
some of the material out there.  I do excuse them for not being exposed to
the work of the researcher from Ireland who spoke at the 1995 LLLI conference
in Chicago.  Harry Torney, BDS, MDent Sc spoke on Breastfeeding and Denatal
Health: An Investigation of Prolonged, On Demand Breastfeeding and Dental
Caries.  When he spoke this work for his Master's thesis had not yet been
published.  He spoke about stress during pregnancies and the mother's own
dental health. It seemed that when the mother had all her caries repaired and
theerby lessened the amount of Strep mutans bacteria in her mouth then her
child would be much less likely to be exposed to this cavity causing
bacteria.  He called this a trend since it was not statistically verified.

The four statistically significant factors associated with dental caries at
age two were:
-defective tooth enamel first and foremost
-maternal stress +/or breavement as reported by the mother
-reduced maternal intake of dairy products [during the pregnancy]
-medically diagnosed illness (possibly associated with antibiotic use) [again
I believe during the pragnancy]

He had a long list of factors where no statistical significance was shown
including night-time nursing, CA & vit supplementation for motherin the year
before the birth, age of weaning, tandem nursing, bfg frequency, medications
apart form antibiotics, switch nursing, frequency of cariogenic foods/drinks
(if still nursing) frequency of brushing the child's teeth, levels of lactose
inteh mother's milk.  And these are not the list in its entirety.

I for one was disillusioned as an adult to find that these 'august bodies'
once they issued statements were like granite when challenged to update or
change previous positions statements.  Heimlich had a problem with this when
trying to convince the American Red Cross to use his manuever instead of
slaps on the back which would sometimes serve to lodge matter further in the
airway.

Perhaps we have to direct the ADA to the LLLI Breastfeeding Info. Center for
their bibliography and a second look at the issue ;).

Mardrey Swenson