Breast Feeding Baby

March 18th, 2009 by Mark Mutschler

A two year old little girl came to see me from Milwaukie at our Oregon City location.  Since Milwaukie is between the Oregon City and the Portland office, she could go to either office. 

We made her comfortable and looked at her teeth while lying in her mother’s lap.

This little girl had some very large cavities on her front teeth.  She had never had a bottle and had been breast fed only. 

Her mother told me that a book she read promised her that Mother’s Milk could NEVER cause cavities.

I recommend breast feeding babies because:

• it forms a bond between mother and child
• it is very nutritious
• it provides immunity from many diseases while nursing

Unfortunately, if babies spend all night in bed with their mother and nurse whenever they want, milk will be on Baby’s teeth continuously. 

Because cavities come from bacteria on teeth turning sugar and starch into acid that dissolves holes in enamel, mother’s milk CAN cause cavities; just not as many cavities as juice or other drinks with sucrose sugar. 

Click here to link to more info on how cavities form.

Nursing all night in bed with Mom causes cavities on front teeth.  I have seen it!  It is true!  Just don’t do it!

Of course, until teeth erupt into baby’s mouth, no cavities can form.  But why start a habit that will be hard to break?  Just keep Baby in a crib and not only will you sleep better, they will too.

Not only is sleeping with your baby potentially bad for their teeth, there has been an association between newborn babies sleeping with their parents and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). 

Once her mother discovered the cavities, we came up with a plan to stop them from getting bigger.  Click here for more details. 

If her cavities start to bother her, we have several options to fix them.

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