>First, yes, I have searched the archives and found some great info on dental
>caries.

You may have seen the story of my first child and her teeth, but I will
re-post it because some of the questions you ask seem to relate to our story.

The medications this mother took during her pregnancy could have interfered
with the calcium assimilation as could have the dairy allergy. I think that
it is a false security to depend on dairy for calcium if there is a
sensitivity or allergy to it.  My children grew in height at a noticeably
faster rate once I eliminated dairy from their diets and replaced it with a
good Ca/mag/zinc supplement.

Here is my post from last September :

Subject:      Re: "Bottle Mouth"


Having one child with serious decay from age one, I have concluded that it
was due to the visible, incomplete enamel areas of her primary teeth. Her
teeth
continued to decay long after she was no longer feeding at the breast and
continued despite brushing after anything that entered her mouth.  She did
continue eating, though she had NO sweets from age 2 'till her primary teeth
were gone, but she still had 4-5 new cavities every 4 months when we visited
the dentist.

I attribute her inadequate enamelling to my prenatal diet that was deficient
in calcium. I have since learned that the small amount of calcium in
prenatal vitamins combined with my high protein and other phosphorus intake
were the probable cause of my insufficient calcium assimilation.  I had
symptoms of ca. deficiency during my pregnancy that I didn't know at that
time was due to that cause.

I also discovered after my second child that I am allergic to( or have a
"sensitivity to", if you prefer) dairy products.  I believe that
assimilation of nutrients is interefered with when there is an allergy to a
given food.

With my second baby I took responsibility for my own nutrition and focused
on calcium and magnesium, and didn't overeat proteins, and avoided such high
phosphorus substances as colas and root beer.  I didn't rely on dairy
products for my calcium intake.

Baby #2 nursed much more at night than baby #1 and continued for 4 years.
She had no cavities because she had solid enamel on her teeth.

If a child has inadequate enamelling of teeth there will probably be some
decay caused by her feeding "all night."  There will be some decay caused by
her feeding at all. But if cavity-free is what we are aiming for, then the
only solution for children with inadequate enamelling is to suspend ALL
eating and drinking until these teeth are replaced by the permantent teeth.
Actually, even that wouldn't stop the decay, just slow it.

The many benefits of breastfeeding, including at nighttime, far outweigh the
negative effects of cavities in the primary teeth.  Our years in the dental
chair were hard, but Lia learned a healthy respect for dental health and we
went through it all together.  And I know that if I had weaned her, her
overall health, including emotional, would have been compromised...and her
teeth would have continued to decay. Remember, the benefits of breastfeeding
are life-long.

>Other factors to note:  the mom has a dairy allergy so she did not consume a
>lot of dairy during this latest pregnancy and she and her husband both have a
>bad dental history.

In considering the bacteria in baby's or mom's mouth, I wonder if my using
dairy products when I was allergic to them could have affected my oral
flora and baby's. I didn't use any dairy with baby #2 from the time she was
5 weeks old. Could some of this dental problem be another legacy of those
of us who were cow's milk fed?


Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee




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