Dear Kathy:
I'm afraid that I don't have any references to share (I haven't seen any).
But, unfortunately., I've had some experience with this. My youngest son
developed a cavity on the front of his incisor at 18 mos. I was large enough
for me to plainly see. We had found a competent pediatric dentist for my
older son. So we took him in. The dentist asked if Chris was taking a
bottle at night. I told him that he had always refused a bottle and never
took one. At that point, he chocked it up to "weak enamel." He knew about
the night nursing but was very nice about it (even let me stay in the room so
I could nurse him before heading home).
However, within the next few months, Chris developed a number of cavities on
the tips of his front teeth--classic bottle mouth. At this point, the
dentist advised me to wean. Chris was a very avid night nurser and I knew
this would be extremely difficult. I told the dentist that that would not be
possible. I tried to explain why and tried to defend night nursing, but
unfortunately, the impact of my words was severely lessened by a two year old
crawling on my lap.
We never discussed it again. But in the meantime, my husband and I stepped
up efforts to cut down on juice, snacks, etc... To be super diligent about
brushing and using a fluride topical treatment. Chris is now almost four,
still night nursing and his most recent dentist (we moved) pronounced that
his teeth are fine and have not continued to deteriorate.
If night nursing were truly the culprit, I would expect that the caries would
have gotten worse. But this was not the case.
Some other things I've thought of in this regard was that in cultures where
co-sleeping and night nursing were the norm, we would expect to see lots of
caries--but as far as I know , we do not. Further, as you all know,
breastmilk does not pool like juice or abm in a bottle. Finally, since
breastmilk is anti-bacterial, I would expect that it might even protect the
teeth.
Sorry to go on so long. I hope this helps. It was unpleasant to have a run
in with this dentist who is basically a nice guy. But I'm very glad I didn't
just blindly follow his advice.
Kathy Kendall-Tackett Ph.D. LLLL
Henniker NH
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