Just wanted to get this out there for any moms facing this awful problem with their child(ren).
There is a support list for parents of babies with tooth decay. The list is AP/instinctive parenting based.

This is a list for parents looking for support and information on baby and toddler tooth decay and tooth degeneration.
We will be discussing breastfeeding and nighttime nursing and it's relation to infant tooth decay, hereditary factors, lead, antibiotics, vaccination, "bottle-mouth" and bottle feeding and it's part in causing tooth decay,
natural dentistry, homeopathic remedies, prevention, treatment and much more!
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BabyToothDecay/

My 2 year old had his front four decay (from night nursing I was told). It was hard, he had surgery and all that.

It's awful isn't it? :(
My son has had 3 surgeries under general anesthetic.
You should join, to support the other moms :) it's such an incredibly hard thing to go through. Do you night wean? Or wean completely? Can you fight the dentists? Should you fight the dentists? There's so much to go through and it all happens so fast.
sia

I think the dentists are right, unfortunately. It happens sometimes, some children have "special" bacteria. My midwife even thought we did the right thing. It is hard, though. I weaned completely as I had to get my wisdom teeth out right after and would be on pain meds, it seemed like the right time.

That's actually something I've been looking into. Lactobaccilli levels are higher in breastfed children. That's one of the bacteria involved in tooth decay. Strep mutans is like the fire but lactobaccilli acts like fuel. It doesn't do much to start cavities on it's own but once it is introduced it really accellerates the process. Is that the sort of bacterial infection you are talking about?
I've had NO success in getting professional opinions on the topic. I have some studies and what not but when I tried to contact dentists with my questions I get no replies.
I'm glad you had a support system.

It is my middle child who suffered such severe decay that he lost almost all of his natural teeth. I still nursed him until he was almost 5 though :) I breastfed my daughter (youngest) until she was almost 4 and night nursed her into well into her 2nd year without any tooth decay at all, so there is hope. There has *got* to be a way to still breastfeed our children naturally without having to put their teeth at risk, right?
I did night wean my son at about 3 and a half years old because I just didn't feel it was an acceptable risk anymore. His decay was so bad by then :(
I still think you would be a wonderful support to parents going through this. There are so many options, it's great to hear insight from those who followed a different path and especially if they found success!
Lisa

All my older ones stopped nursing at 2 1/2.
My youngest(4) is still nursing a few times a week and we just discovered she has a cavaty.:(
I am going to have to drive over an hour to get to a ped.dentist.

I hope it's worth the drive!!
We had to travel to another city too. We still do, every few months for follow-up appointments. I'm in Canada and we have help financially for travel and for dental expenses based on your income. That helps :)
Lisa

After all the insurance paperwork gets settled I'll be scheduling another surgery. My second had dental surgery when he was 27 months old. My youngest had enamel chipping off when she was 9 months old (and her top teeth were only a month old). She's the one that will have the surgery next. My oldest got by with in office visits since his decay was as rapid as theirs, but he still had at least 6 teeth worked on. There were also several along the top front row that they said to not worry about since they would come out the soonest and 2 molars that should be removed but he refuses to have it done now. They even abcessed once, but we gave him the antibiotics. I thought my baby just didn't have the enamel on most of her teeth but I found out she has 13 cavities and her front two teeth will probably have to be removed. It's horrible and I hope not to go through this again, as I am pregnant. I'm taking extra calcium this time around.

only one of my extended nursers had any kind of tooth decay-and that was riehle...of course all the dentists we saw blamed night nursing as well...i did what i knew was best and continued nursing him as he needed-day or night.

we had some work done, in office, but if i ever had to make the choice again, we'd have the child put under.

fwiw-all the work fell out and had to be redone twice...eventually we had the teeth pulled out completely and now he's got adult teeth in their place and they're healthy, thank the goddess :D

lll has some good info on night nursing on their site-dentists are idiots when it comes to nursing & teeth.