DS is 2.5 and I took him to the dentist at 2 years old. The dentist told me he had 2 cavities and the enamel was coming off his front teeth (which would soon become cavities) and that it was a result of nursing since they were all on the top. I made sure to brush his teeth 2 or 3 times a day, but he still got the cavities. He had to get 2 crowns, 1 filling, and two of his front top teeth filled with tooth colored filling...that was a terrible day (papoose). He still nurses at night, and I feel terrible for it because everytime I feel like I am rotting his teeth all night and I don't want him to have to go through what he went through at the dentist's. Has this happened to any of your children? I actually want to ween him but when I try to avoid nursing him he cries, pulls up my shirt, and I get engorged (and I've had mastitis several times, so I am afraid to let them stay engorged). I would like some advice or comments on this if possible. Thanks!

My understanding is that the nipple is too far back in their mouth to cause cavities. That's what I was told.

Originally posted by spiritfreedom
My understanding is that the nipple is too far back in their mouth to cause cavities. That's what I was told.

that's what i've heard, too... what else does your son eat? is he eating a lot of sugar? does your family have a history for "soft" teeth (or whatever it's called when you're more prone to get cavities)? what kind of toothpaste are you using w/ him (if any at all)?

have you been going to this dentist for a long time? my first thought was that he did a lot of work for one of his first visits... sounds a bit shady to me... after all, he doesn't get paid as much unless he does actual dental work... (i hope i'm not offending you if this guy is like family or something... but sometimes there are dishonest people out there in the medical/dental/legal fields that will take advantage of good-hearted people)

I don't know that it causes it, but I do believe it can contribute to tooth decay in susceptible children. I have 4 kids. All of them nursed for quite a long time (2 years. 3 years, 3 years, and the youngest is still nursing at 2.5 years) My oldest 2 children never had any problems with their teeth. My younger 2 have had problems (fillings at a young age, crowns etc) My sister's children were similiar (2 without problems and 2 with) I think it does depend on the child and their teeth. Kathryn still nurses during the day, but I try very hard not to nurse her at night anymore.

Maybe you could night wean him ? That would probably help a lot. I know how hard it is to have little ones go through dental procedures like that :( You're doing the right thing by getting them taken care of before he's in too much pain. If you can get a look at the backs of his top front teeth, there's a good chance you may be able to see some signs of the decay.

:big hug:

I'd only been that dentist once before. DS has Medicaid and I thought it seemed like a lot of work, too, but I told them to do whatever was needed right then so he wouldn't have to go through it again. He also didn't give DS any sedation other than the shot in his gums and he cried so hard he threw up blood. I was crying too, and the dentist said, "This is typical of a child his age to cry, he can't feel anything, he's just afraid of the noises." Uh, hello? DS was afraid because he was strapped down, had a drill in his mouth, blood going down his throat, and some stranger telling him not to cry. I was so mad at myself for letting this happen, and even madder at the dentist. I had called all the dentists who accept Medicaid in my area and none offered anesthesia/sedation. I thought he'd be drowsy from the shot (he wasn't) and I wasn't expecting all that to happen - torture! Argh! Sorry, this turned into a long rant here....

editing to add: I was using the fluoride free baby tooth paste (by Orajel) rom about 8 months till all of his dental work (last month). Now we use crest kids toothpaste w/fluoride & brush 3 times a day.

I think nursing = cavities is a bunch of bull hockey plain and simple.

I believe that cavities are more of a herditary issue.

I had lots of cavities and had a tooth pulled as a baby.

I have had NO teeth problems in my adult teeth.

I dont like the dentist to this day and rarely go.

I also switched to floride free toothpast many months ago.

I concur with most of the posts above. The breast is too far back in the mouth to cause tooth decay on the front teeth. This is most likely genetic. Do some research on Xylitol. My dentist (who is holistic, we love him!) highly recommends this for all children. It is said to re-mineralize teeth.

Sounds like the visit was pretty traumatic...perhaps it is time to find a new dentist. Strapping down a baby and making them cry until they vomit blood is awful! Totally unnecessary, IMO unless it was a life or death situation!

With care,
Angel

only one of my bf children got any cavities-and they all en'ed.

i also was a little freaked out about it & felt a little guilty about night nursing after all the dental work he had to have-but eventually put it all off until his teeth started to hurt him (continued nursing, of course), and then we dealt with the bad teeth.

by this time he was almost 5 yrs old and much more cooperative & able to understand what was going on at the dentist.

one word of caution is to make sure that your ds NEEDS all the work the dentist is doing, since medicaid to dentist is like free $ lining his/her pocket, and many times they take advantage of caps, fillings, etc since the states pay with no questions asked.

ds had 1 silver cap & two tooth colored fillings done at 18mos-the two tooth colored fillings came off, so we re-did them a second time-it was so tough on both of us (and our ins would not pay for knocking him out), so we decided when they came off again, we'd wait & not do anything until he was older.

that's exactly what happened-and i'm so glad it did. he's now almost 9yo & has beautiful teeth :D has had lots of teeth pulled-no spacers ever used, no flouride treatments, and no sealants (which they always suggested to me).

hth

All mine have night nursed w/no probs, but diff kids DO have diff levels of susceptibility. I read a study stating that brushing before night nursing is important because while breastmilk did NOT cause dental caries, teeth with food residue which were immersed in breastmilk DID have problems. I'll look for the link...

OK here's a link:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/tooth-decay.html

My daughter nursed until she was 2.5 with no problems. My son however, he will be 2 next week. Back in January I noticed his 2 top side teeth were getting plaque.

I did some re-search on early infant caries/infant cavities. It can happen with breastfeeding but more commonly in formula. What happens is the acids in the mouth that beak down the breast milk go into overload and actually eat away at the teeth for 20 minutes after nursing. His 2 front teeth are week and chipped and his to top side teeth have plaque and are also ground down a bit, and I can see some plaque in one of his top molars as well.

He doestn each much for solids other then vegtables and some fruit. No juice or anything with processed sugar.

We brought him in 2 months ago to have them lookd at. He told us to try to night wean and brush his teeth 2 times per day and also brush on the liquid floride he sent us home with. Said he is too young for anything else and didnt want him to be put under at his age so we go back in next month to see if its helping slow things down.

My son still nurses at night, cant wean him he's not ready. But we brush first thing in the morning and in the evening as well. He wont always let me brush on the flouride, so its some days we do some days we dont. But it isnt spreading to other teeth so thats a good thing.

sorry about the ordeal you went through. That is an awful situation to be in. We dont have dental insurance so we just paid for a Doctor that specialized in early infant caries. Not all Dentisits too and thus treat the kids for the wrong thing.

Denise

Gage had cavities behind 4 of his front teeth. I've nursed all of my boys at night and I always brushed their teeth good so I couldn't imagine the cavities were due mainly to night nursing. The dentist that we chose to work on Gage said that nursing could be "part" of the problem but wasn't solely to blame. Genetics, diet, enamel thickness all play a role. Taylor is 15 and has never had a cavity.. baby or adult teeth. Keaton had a "speck" on one tooth when he was about 10.. nothing since. My youngest 3 sons are from my current husband ..so different genetics. Both Jack and Gage have had cavities despite my attempts to prevent them. We just had a check up 2 weeks ago and Gage has 5 more "tiny spots" that will require filling. I was shocked since I've paid so much attention to them. The good thing is that a child can have horrible, weak baby teeth but very strong adult teeth.. Thank God for that!

Also.. if your child ever requires dental work again there are dentists that use different methods which can be a lot less tramatic on child and mama :) It took me 2 weeks and probably 40-50 phone calls to locate a qualified dentist (3 hours away) that would do a concoction of safe meds that would put Gage to sleep (sort of drunk.. sort of asleep) and do the procedure in his office. Some dentist required full anesthesia in a hospital setting (neither our health insur. nor dental insur. would cover the $5000 plus bill) and some dentists would only use nitrous oxide and papoose board .. with a devise shoved in their mouth to prevent it from closing. One dentist used a method which involved wrapping the child in a sheet and having a nurse help hold him down. :eek: .. anyway..


almost forgot to tell you.. When you nurse at night ..keep a damp washcloth (or a dry one with a glass of water) next to the bed. Swipe the fronts and backs of your son's teeth after nursing.

good luck!

Wow, that's a good idea to use a washcloth to wipe his teeth when he's asleep. I've actually tried brushing them while he's asleep, but he clamps down and it's hard. Brushing his teeth is always an ordeal (screaming, eating the toothpast off the brush, biting down, etc.) and it's very difficult to get the back teeth thoroughly, but I never thought his teeth were in such bad shape. I do think that heredity must have a major part in this because I brush my teeth 3x a day & floss and am in need of major dental work myself (and guess where all my cavities are...under my sealants I received while my dad was in the air force!!)

Thanks for the advice mamas and trust me, we are NOT going back to that dentist!:vent:

:(

No real advice/answers for you, but I am so sad that your baby had to go through that. I too worry about the night nursing...Rebecca still wakes most nights to nurse at least once, and I fall asleep during it, so even if I kept a washcloth by the bed to wipe her teeth, I'd be sleeping, so I know I woulnd't do it....

Just FYI, in CT, I cannot think on *one* dentist that takes Medicaid that I'd go near with a 10 foot pole. (I worked in a dental office for 6 years, so I know who's good, lol) I don't know if other states are like that or not, but I thought I'd put it out there. Think about it: Here, a root canal costs about $900 or so if paid for privately. Most insurance companies that dentists are contracted with (meaning they take a reduced amt between the company and the patient's copay) are around $700. Medicaid in CT pays about $200. Generally, the "good" dentists don't accept such low payments. Again, I don't know if it's different in other states.......

Michelle

Molly is 3 1/2 and has bad teeth. You can SEE her cavities. The dentist wants to wait 6 months. He wants her to be older for two reasons. In 6 months she will have more cavities coming and he does not want to tramatize her at such a young age.

Molly is the first of 5 that actually let me brush her teeth. I was told she has very little plauge. She does have deep pits that catch everything. She also has some soft teeth.

Since she is the first I know it is not from nursing. My oldest had a bottle till he was 6. He was on the ketogenic diet and discovered his brothers sippy cups had sweet things in them LOL

That dentist was horrible. With Molly she started to wiggle when he was taking decay off the back of a front tooth. The dentist stopped and talked to her, asked her if he could continue. She nodded and he kept going.

There is a problem here in Maine with Medicaid and dentists. Only my oldest has it, but we also have insurance. I would not know where to go if I had to rely on just Medicaid.

My daughter had tooth decay that suddenly showed up a little after her first birthday and within three months her top front teeth were rotted, chipped, etc. We found a ped. dentist that did sedation and had the teeth pulled, and she needed alot of work. My 1.5 yo son is starting to see the same thing. Both nursed (no bottle) and would nurse at night. While breastfeeding may not be linked to tooth decay specifically, I've seen and heard from others a point of view that makes sense. This is how our ped. dentist explained it too.
Anything left on the teeth will affect them. (period) Here's a good article that supports that: kellymom(dot)com/bf/older-baby/tooth-decay.html

We have found it impossible to brush our babies teeth in the middle of the night. I also feel it's not responsible to just let them rot either. I think rotting teeth has just as bad an affect as stopping the nursing before the baby is "ready".

Seems the best advice is: if your kid has teeth that are more susceptible to decay, get a good nighttime strategy and routine that you can actually commit to.

I have extended nursed all of my kids and Makena and Sully both have ECC. I think it is "soft" teeth, as opposed to nursing. Bailee nursed the same amt of time as them , and her teeth are perfect. We had M's fixed @ 2years old and instead, Im going to wait until Sully's need attention. I figure if I am adament about brushing his teeth, twice daily, there is really nothing more I can do to stop it, other than shell a bunch of money to teeth that are going to fall out anyway. Shoot all the money we put into M's teeth and the one that was the worse got absessed, and had to be pulled in the end anyhow:shake:
don't feel guilty ,mama. :hug: