sleep, nursing & tooth decay?

mpstochlinski8

I beshare part of the night with whomever wakes up to be nursed as long as its one at a time. It seems like the only way to get them back to sleep is to nurse them. I sleep on a futon in the nursery since we have twins we can't fit everyone in our bed or our room so this has been working well. my question or concern is about tooth decay, my LOs only have 4 teeth right now but I have heard that if you let them fall asleep nursing and they just suck to comfort it can rot their teeth. I usually fall asleep with them and at some point put them back in bed once their in a deep enough sleep not to notice. I have to do this otherwise with the other twin wakes up its not an easy thing to move the sleeping baby to get the awake one. 

anyone know much about this or should I not worry at this point? TIA 

AmeliaMarie

I haven't heard anything about that. I don't think it's a concern at this point. When they're sucking for comfort they are not getting much milk. I'm sure I've heard breast feeding is better for teeth then pacifiers. 

Meg&Jesse

There is some research on La Lecha League's website.  We took DS to a pediatric dentist before he was 2 and he was still nursing.  I was given a "lecture" by the hygienst and did some research.  If I recall, it basically says that when an LO is  nursing they are sucking to get the milk out, so it won't fill up in the mouth the way liquid from a bottle would.  Anyways, I was quite irritated and we ended up not going back to that dentist. 

So, no I would not worried about it.  DS continued to nurse at night right before the age of 2 and has had no issues with his teeth. 

pixieprincss

I don't have the time to dig up a source, but what I recall from my reading is that breastmilk alone isn't an issue for teeth. However, breastmilk + food can be, so just be sure kids go to bed with brushed teeth once they are older, then they'll just have the BM on them. This young, I don't think it is a big deal to not brush the teeth religiously before bed, though.

sucredee

There's a good article about that on kellymom.com. on my phone right now so a little hard to dig it up but just search their site. DD still nurses before bed and once at night and that article made me feel better. When they nurse the nipple is really elongated so relatively little milk hits the teeth no pooling). When they nurse for comfort they don't really get any milk.

mpstochlinski8

awesome thank you all

rosiemomma

Breast-milk is really good for teeth... sugar isn't... Brush babies teeth good every single night after the last meal/snack.

chicagobridelibby

Well, according to the American Dental Association, 

"Unrestricted, at-will nocturnal breastfeeding after eruption of the child's first tooth can lead to an increased risk of caries"

So it looks like you should try to get their mouths clean after the night feeding.   

boogerbearoriginal

Here's the link to kellymom re: nightnursing and tooth decay LINK

This quoted study summarizes the information well:

"The 1999 Erickson study (in which healthy teeth were immersed in different solutions) indicated that breastmilk alone was practically identical to water and did not cause tooth decay ? another experiment even indicated that the teeth became stronger when immersed in breastmilk. However, when a small amount of sugar was added to the breastmilk, the mixture was worse than a sugar solution when it came to causing tooth decay. This study emphasizes the importance of tooth brushing and good dental hygiene." 

It's also important to limit the amount of sugary foods/drinks they eat during the day, for their teeth and their general health. 

Our nighttime routine is bath/jammies, brush teeth, stories, nurse to sleep.  HTH!