Question re night feeding and teeth cleaning

[~Bec~]

I have a question for mums who bf during the night a baby/toddler who has teeth. Do you still feed during the night or do you brush their teeth afterwards or do you just not worry about it? Just curious :)

[Benji]

When my boy was younger, I'd give him his dinner, then bath, then bed time feed THEN brush his teeth for bed.

If he woke during the night for a feed he'd usually fall asleep on the boob, so I didn't worry about brushing his teeth. I've read that the way in which they feed off the nipple means that often the milk doesn't touch their teeth and the way BM is designed doesn't hurt their teeth anyway because the sugars are different.. or something :laughing:

I did breathe a sigh of relief I must admit when he stopped feeding throughout the night, around 13 months so he always had freshly cleaned teeth for the night.

[AM]

From what I have read, it is the combination of food and breastmilk together that can cause tooth decay, so if you are religious about brushing your childs teeth before bed, then you can nurse to sleep/night nurse with no worries.

Breastmilk on its own is actually supposed to be good for teeth...

read this article about the research which has been carried out about it... The sugars in breastmilk are actually completely different to those in other food, and act in different ways.

"Breastfeeding and infant caries: No connection" www.brianpalmerdds.com/bfeed_caries.htm

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

[Milk_Monkey]

This is a lesson we learnt the hard way.

Breastmilk has sugar in it just like any other food, so feeding through the night will lead to decay. You need to leave 15minutes between a feed and falling asleep to produce enough saliva to help prevent problems, otherwise you should brush teeth or give the kids a good drink of water before they drop off.

As long as there is a good block of the day where the teeth have a chance to recover, you should be okay. Just make sure that, as well as brushing, you actually have a really good look at the teeth every once in a while as well to check for 'shadows' which indicate decay.

[naiwen]

DS dentist said that feeding to sleep on bottle or breast is the main cause of cavities in toddlers, we brush DS teeth after his night time bottle now!

[little_fish]

From what I have read, it is the combination of food and breastmilk together that can cause tooth decay, so if you are religious about brushing your childs teeth before bed, then you can nurse to sleep/night nurse with no worries.

Breastmilk on its own is actually supposed to be good for teeth...

read this article about the research which has been carried out about it...

"Breastfeeding and infant caries: No connection" www.brianpalmerdds.com/bfeed_caries.htm

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

Wow this is interesting. I had no idea.

I fed then brushed then put to bed. the brushing was an argument though as he'd want to be asleep. I wouldn't worry if he fed again in the night.

[Areca]

Well DD2 only has 3 teeth. They get brushed of an evening, after dinner but before her last feed. She's recently stopped wanting to be fed to sleep so maybe I should switch her routine.

She still wakes through the night to feed but I'm not overly concerned yet because the milk doesn't actually touch her teeth. Having only three teeth at 13 months has its advantages :)