Dear Brian Palmer, DDS.

Thank you so very much for your valuable and informative posts to Lactnet.  I
am so looking forward to your ILCA presentation!

In the discussion of oral health in response to concern over dental caries
and breastfeeding, thoughts again came to my mind of the oral facial
implications of breastfeeding and I wanted to share the following experience
I had in Japan.

While living in Japan, I saw a public TV documentary on the oral facial
problems of people and their speech difficulties.  It was on sometime in
1987-1989.  The station was NHK, the nationally owned station.  With my
limited Japanese language, I understood loud and clear that the problems were
directly attributed to bottle-feeding  (not breastfeeding) while infants!!!
 I understood the personal sharing part the best.  They had a number of
people affected giving their stories.  I can't imagine any mother feeling OK
about bottle-feeding after seeing that show.  (Last year I had a Japanese
client who knew about this before I told her and it was her motivation to not
be satisfied with pumping her milk and bottlefeeding---I'm glad to say she
had a positive outcome and wonderful breastfeeding experience when things
resolved at about 3-4 weeks pp)

I wonder if there would be a way to access the documentary or the research it
was based on.  I know I read, via LLLI?, of  research in the USA that shows
that babies breastfed one year or more have less need for orthodontal
intervention........

Also, should you find information and need help with translation from
Japanese language to English, I think I could persuade my completely
bilingual husband to help out.  :-)

Natalie Shenk BS IBCLC
Private practice LC in Ohio USA
and who started her career working with breastfeeding women while she was in
Japan-- and who is sad to see more and more women in Japan unable to
exclusively breastfeed.  (In their culture, the *benefits* of breastfeeding
would be a motivator unlike here in the US---everything is done to give their
child the special advantage........The main marketing tool there seems to be
the "just in case you don't have enough" line.....)