On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 00:20:39 -0700, Kathryne R. Bredbeck
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Babies are colonized with E. coli bacteria as they come through the
> birth canal.  So Dr. Wooten's statement doesn't make sense to me.
> Maybe it's a case of trying to prove something with 2 true things that
> don't correlate.

I might have lost track of some of this conversastion, but, it's
streptococcus mutans that is the caries causing bacteria and it can be
passed via saliva.   I'm not sure about tandem nursing, but I have
heard that Finnish mothers are discouraged from splitting grapes in
their mouth, for example, rinsing pacifiers in their mouth and
generally avoiding transferring saliva to their offspring.   children
are given Xylitol gum in order to clean their teeth after eating, both
to remove any sugars and to change the pH of the mouth to make it less
friendly to streptococcus mutans.

of course, most moms think I'm nuts when I see them putting food in
their mouth to then pass to their baby and they defend it- I figure
all I can do is mention it and  mention the Finnish dental findings.

I'm hoping one of our Finnish members will weigh in on this, or you
can search the archives for the last time it was discussed.   or
google it.   -xylitol cavities- gets a lot of hits as does - saliva
caries- .




Kate, http://systems.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/advantages-of-formula.html
  Mom to Ursula (10!), Sage (7), Benno (3.9)  "There is no snooze
button on a cat who wants breakfast."- Unknown

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