For those of you interested in more information on breastfeeding and
dental caries, I recommend getting a copy of the tape of Dr. Harry
Torney's session called "Breastfeeding and Dental Health:  An
Investigation of Prolonged, On-Demand Breastfeeding and Dental Caries"
from the 1995 LLLI Conference in Chicago.  You can contact LLLI for
information on how to order this tape.  This was a particularly
interesting session.

A portion of the abstract from this session, discussing a population of
107 children who had been breastfed on demand for at least two years,
reports:

"Breastfeeding per se did not appear to be associated with dental caries
since the high and low caries groups were similar in relation to the
frequency of breastfeeding during the day or night, the age of weaning
and the breastmilk lactose content.  However, four factors were
significantly associated with the high caries group.  The most
significant relationship was with defective enamel while the other three
factors related to events which had occurred while the child was in
utero.  One of these was maternal stress and/or bereavement as reported
by the mother.  Another was a reduced intake of dairy products as
estimated retrospectively by the mother.  The third factor was medically
diagnosed illness in the mother although it appeared that most of this
effect might have been related to the taking of antibiotics.  Other
types of medication and 27 other factors were not found to be associated
with the high caries children."

An interesting article pertaining to a study done on rat pups but
suggesting a possible connection between maternal caffeine intake and
dental caries in their offspring is by Nakamoto, T. et al. Cariogenic
effect of caffeine intake during lactation on first molars of newborn
rats.  Archs Oral Biol 1993 38(10):919-22.

Alice Ziring