Andrea,

This topic has been discussed at great length on Lactnet only a few
months ago.  You should check back.

Basically, dentists don't know more about breastfeeding than physicians.
Why should they?  They are also very hung up on teeth, as if teeth were
the most important thing in the world.  They are important, but not that
important.  Certainly not important enough to forcibly wean a 14 month
old and cause psychologic trauma, for an issue which has not been
proved.

Dentists have no idea how frequently children develop cavities with
breastfeeding at night.  Just like women do not come to my clinic if
they *don't* have problems breastfeeding, dentists are taking a few
cases of caries in breastfed babies, *assuming* they are due to the same
process as bottle mouth caries, because they are taking the bottle
feeding baby as the model of normal, and generalizing that breastfeeding
after a year is not good.  This is bad science and bad observation.

The prof who said there is no value in breastfeeding after 3 or 4 months
is a drip. Let's hope your friend has more sense that the majority of
dentists about this issue.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC