Well, this is just my personal opinion, take it for whatever you think
it's worth.
I believe that a baby that stays on the breast, off & on, all night, who
has teeth, may risk carries from the constant or near constant presence
of food for bacteria to utilize for growth.  My own solution for this
concern (I also slept with my babies and nursed "all night") was to
scrub the teeth twice daily with a wet 2x2 gauze pad, particularly
behind the teeth.  When they got a bit older, I used a toothbrush.  My
reasoning for this was that the teeth seem to get coated with milk that
gets "sticky" and stays adhered to the teeth.  I felt that if I could
get rid of that tacky substance twice daily, perhaps the bacteria
wouldn't have time to do any damage.  This might be completely off base,
but it made sense to me at the time.  With Caitlin, (4) who still nurses
just before sleep each night, I just have her drink some water after
nursing in the hope that it will wash out the majority of milk.

I do know, that of the 10 children in our immediate family, the only one
who has had any dental problems, (8 crowns at age 3 yrs) was the one who
was only nursed for 6 months.  All the rest nursed much longer.  The mom
of this poor girl wanted to nurse longer, but was unable to get
competent medical management of her thrush infection.  The mom went on
to develop ductal breast cancer a few years later. Mmmmmm?
--

Denny Rice, RN, IBCLC
Dallas Texas USA

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