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Breastfeeding and Dental Health

Brenda - posted on 11/16/2010 ( 4 moms have responded )

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So looks like Nick, the lucky boy, got my teeth. It looks like the enamal is thin and there is some sort of anamoly on his two second teeth, almost like decay and cavities along the gumline in the front. Already one of the first dentists tells me that breastfeeding him to sleep is causing it. I got ahold of a specialist who only does 6 month to 5 years that is covered by both our insurance, and they didn't say anything about it, so maybe this one will be okay.

So what I'm wanting is the links to research showing that breastfeeding doesn't cause tooth decay the same way bottle feeding does. I will be armed when I go on the 15th. Just in case.

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Sally - posted on 11/18/2010

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I gave my copy of The Womnly Art of Breastfeeding to one my sister's employees so I can't give you all the details. There was a bit in there about nursing not caising tooth damage. My favorite bit was the quote from an anthropologist that for breast milk to cause tooth decay would be evolutionary suicide.
Good luck

Brenda - posted on 11/18/2010

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There we go. Awesome. Yeah, well, it feels like there are holes there. I had every tooth I had worked on when I was three, and my mom had dentures by 45, and my grandpa had no teeth for as long as I can remember. The kellymom stuff is what I was thinking of because it is the strep mutinus bacteria that leads to decay before 5. :) He has had strep throat once and ran fever, so not sure. Well we'll figure it out.

Lisbeth - posted on 11/17/2010

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Ok so I don't have a link but my daughter has this and I also breastfeed but our dentist told me that the cause of this is actually when a child has a high fever when their teeth were developing and this causes the enamel not to grow. if it isn't bothering him than just leave it once their adult teeth come in they will be fine. If it is bothering them then the teeth need to be pulled but i would look into other options. Just out of curiosity did your son have a fever when his teeth were growing? My daughter had H1N1 when they were growing:( so now she has these like brown indents in her top front teeth but it doesn't bother her.

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