It has always seemed to me that dentists see toddler night nursing as a
strong risk factor for tooth decay because they only hear about it from
parents of toddlers with tooth decay.  I know I never shared my kids'
nursing history with my dentist because he never asked, it was never an issue
and they never had any tooth decay.  (My daughter had her one and only cavity
at age 7, my son his first at 16.)  When my son, who had a kind of protruding
upper jaw/somewhat receding lower jaw (which later straightened out), first
saw the dentist at age 3, he asked "Did he have a bottle for a long time?",
to which I replied "He never had a bottle" and he didn't ask about
breastfeeding.  I think a small percentage of nursing toddlers will have
tooth decay (this was my experience as a LLL leader) and many dentists don't
know about the rest.  This is not to say that there can never be an
association between night nursing and tooth decay, just that most toddlers
who nurse at night don't get it.

Kathy Dettwyler, any comments on caries among toddlers in Mali?

Miriam Levitt RN, IBCLC, Berkeley, CA

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