Any One Else Have a Toddler with Decayed Front Teeth,

Hi K.,

I just came across a response to another question that had a link to an article called "Is Breastfeeding Linked to Tooth Decay?". I thought you would be interested, here is the link: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/tooth-decay.html

Take care, J.

Get a second opinion. I had one dentist tell me my daughter had five cavities and needed two root canals at the age of 3, and that it was all my fault. I went to another dentist, who showed me her xrays, and said there were no problems with her teeth. Get a second opinion!

Before I became a medical transcriptionist working at home, I worked for a pediatric dentist. A lot of parents were unaware that breast milk has a ton of sugar in it, just like regular milk. There were kids that came in with 12 or 23 teeth that needed something done to them. It's important for parents to brush their kids teeth and even wipe the gums with a wet washcloth or fingertip toothbrush before any teeth show up after feedings. Some parents think "oh, they are just baby teeth so it doesn't matter," but in reality, whatever happens to the baby teeth can in fact affect the permanent teeth as well. I think your dentist is doing the right thing. The space maintainer/bridge will be important later for proper speech development because your child wouldn't have normally lost those teeth until the ages of 5 to 7. They will take it out when the other teeth start coming in.

Don't beat yourself up for this - I bet this would have happened no matter what. Breastfeeding is the ABSOLUTE best thing you can do for your baby as far as nutrition goes, I bet there was an issue in the tooth development or something...the adult teeth will be fine I'm sure.

Just take care of the rest as they come in and try not to sweat it too much.

K.,

I've seen this a lot, I have a handful of friends who went through it. Some breastfed only, some did not. In my opinion, it can happen to either and can even be genetic. Both of mine, now 3 and 5 breastfed until past 2 years old, including throughout the night and as of last week (dentist appt. w/current x-rays, their teeth are in great shape, no decay/cavities, etc..) so, if breastfeeding causes early tooth decay than we either got lucky or breastfeeding isn't a factor. Who knows. It depends on who you ask. My kid's dentist say's no. Both of my kids had teeth early as well and brushing started as soon as the first one sprouted, not sure if that may have contributed to them not getting any cavities yet or not.

M.

K. - We youngest son age 3 also had really bad tooth decay. Not only the fron four teeth but through out his entire mouth. We finally had to do the IV sedation and take care of everything all at once! They cap'd the four front teeth, and he now has silver crowns on 7 others. They told me that it really has to do with family dental history! My side of the family has bad teeth! Too much sugar in our siliva. Both my boys have had bad teeth, and neither one of them used a pacifier, was on a bottle for long periods of time, or drank too much juice! Email me more if you want to know anything else. Our Ped Dentist gave us some Tooth Decay Vitimans, that seem to be strengthening Gabes teeth!

I have friend who's daughter had extensive dental work done when she was 2. And their dentist thinks is was related to the mother's nutrition during pregnancy. But, you know what? It doesn't matter what caused it. It is done, and it needs to be fixed. Dont beat your self up!

I was told that it was because the water here in Paia does not have flouride. I was given drops to give to our son and yet am scared to use them as I was told they discolor his teeth. I am unsure as to what to do. Is it genetic?

My hunch is that, unless it is genetic, her teeth might have just formed poorly while a fetus. For example, the week the teeth develop, my friend had the flu really bad. She didn't give bottles or sippy cups or juice to her son, same as your daughter, but her son's teeth just weren't up to snuff and didn't last the interim of babyhood. If you have time and research fetal development, you can go back and see how your diet and health were during that time. It can be very eye opening.

My sister's youngest has had a lot of trouble with her teeth. It turns out she was born with very little enamel on her teeth! Nursing is not the culprit. I would have a hard time trusting a dentist who made such a claim.

Hi K. :)

I think your dentist sounds like an idiot! I've never heard of any child getting tooth decay from breastfeeding!! I bet that made you feel real good. Don't listen to him; he probably didn't know why and used that as an excuse :\. Go find a different one! If you are in South OC I can give you a good referral.

Your child's brushing and flossing habits are important. Flossing is more important than brushing if you had to do one or the other... she needs to be doing this, with your help, if her teeth are touching (no spaces in between). If she doesn't eat a lot of junk food and takes care of her teeth, then perhaps it's just in the genes? Some people have better teeth than others. At least these are her first set and not the second.

K., I read alot about this on another website. My 3 kids were all breastfed so I didn't know why these moms have this problem. They were told to wipe the baby's teeth after each feeding. Difficult at night when they fall asleep and you also want to go to bed. My own granddaughter also had teeth pulled. We began an extensive dental program, brushing and flossing, especially before bed. I wish we had started it sooner. She uses a toothpaste with teatree oil in it now. Helps fight bacteria which causes decay. And she uses our mouthwash which also has the teatree oil. We dilute it for her but this will clean in between her teeth as well, spaces the toothbrush don't always reach.

My son is 3 almost 4 and both of his front teeth are a gray color. This bothers me really bad but the dentist said that there is nothing that we can do because they are baby teeth. He said that if they become abscessed and hurt, then to give them a call. My biggest thing is that I do not want people looking at me like I do not brush my child's teeth or something because you know how people are.

yes my now 5 year old daughter, fell off a high bed as an infant and when her front teeth finally grew out they had a horizontal crack in both of them, at 2 she fell at the play ground and lost half of one of them and by then the cracks had become light brown ( decay) by 3 her teeth looked horrible and very dark brown almost black cavities in them , I had had a dentist look at hem twice. but she was in terror in the chair so we waited until she was four and had them removed . she did not notice the ugly once until she was near 3 and was fine to be with out them at four. simply explaining to people who asked her that the dentist took them out and that she was not small for her age :)

She too was breast fed and never took a bottle...usually this happens to bottle fed kids I was told. ultimately the explanation came from the thin cracks, becoming cavities. she did not get the bridge, as it tends to fall out anyway soon after they put it in, and why put her tru more dentist experience than absolutely needed.

my daughters beauty has not been clouded by her missing teeth.. II hope you wont be too ashamed...as I know you properly are right now...dont want a reputation of poor health...bad mom syndrome...ect...

I suggest you wait with the surgery until she herself desire it...nothing is worse than not being in charge or on board with what is being done to your body.

yes. I do. my 2 year old girl has decayed four front top teeth. frusterating due to the same thing happend to my now 15 year old boy when he was 2 as will. I told them the apointment to get it taken care of needs to be soon cause ive been through the same thing with my son and they waited too long so they had to surgicaly remove 4 front teeth and cap two and fill in another two. but they arnt taken this serious enough for me. cuz we had the appointment to look at her teeth and talk about what needs to be done on june 14th and they wont do it til the 20th of september. way too long to wait. they are already bad as it is.

My nephew had that same problem and his mom was told it was from the extremely high fevers he got when he was really young.

my brother and one of my sisters (there were 6 of us altogther) had this problem when they were young. I believe it did not happen until after they was weaned. My mom stopped nursing them somewhere between 6 months to 9 months I believe. I remember her saying with my brother it was because he was allergic to milk and couldnt drink milk. Probably not true. I believe like the other posters said that it is probably genetic or related to something entirely unrelated to breastfeeding. BTW, I still nurse my son, including a few night time nursings. He will be 2 in a few weeks and his teeth are great. Altough he did not get his first tooth until he was 10 months old, right before he started walking. Maybe that has something to do with it, when the teeth come in.

It's sad that the one thing that's best for our children gets blamed for everything! I'm so glad my dentist is breastfeeding friendly - I'm still nursing my 20 month old with a mouth full of teeth and they're all healthy. She nurses often at night still so I questioned him about it and he said nursing was fine - just brush and keep regular checkups. Best of luck to you, try not to beat yourself up about it!

Hi C.,
don't feel bad. I went through this with my son who is almost six now. I let him go to bed with milk, nieve to the fact that there was a thing called milk rot. We had to do his dental surgery in the hospital, they pulled 4 teeth and capped the rest (it was bad). He had no problems and was excited to get new teeth! The only thing he hated was we had to go back to the Dentist and get some spacers in, he really doesn't like them too much. We have changed our habbits with him as well with the brushing. My son who is almost 4, I am afraid to find out as today we have an appointment, might have to go through the same thing, but he had decay for other reasons. When he was about a year and a half he was in the hospital and the Dentist told me that he had enamal decay from the medicine they were giving him, we tried to prevent the decay as much as possible, but it beat us. The dentist did not judge us as parents, and basically told me that milk (regular or breast) milk has a lot of sugar in it and you could be the best brusher of teeth and if you go to sleep with milk in you mouth so to speak, those nasty little sugar bugs have a hay day in there!
~ C. ~

K.,

My six year old had this. His dentist called it "Defective Enamal" and it is not that uncommon. I think you need a new dentist, how could breastfeeding be bad for the front teeth? My son's dentist said that it was something some kids are born with and just needs to be dealt with. After taking care of the initial problems he would coat my son's teeth with a sealer and would put a little more on with each visit as the teeth were growing out. Also, this is a problem only with baby teeth, the permanent teeth are just fine as long as you don't let the decayed teeth to continue to stay in their mouths.

Evelyn

Watch out for any doctor that says your child's problems are from breastfeeding! So many doctors have an anti-breastfeeding agenda. Remember that most cultures around the world nurse for LONGER than two years. It just sends up a red flag for me, and I'd get a second opinion.

I haven't read your responses but it could be that your child was born without enamel on her teeth. My DH had the condition, as did hi paternal grandfather. He had caps on his baby teeth and now, with his adult teeth, he has fairly sensitive teeth on the same ones.

Your dentist doesn't know what he's talking about when he says it was caused by BF. Is he some kind of anti-BF nazi? BF is actually better for baby's teeth than any other substance. It continues to amaze me how little people know about breastfeeding... and that's probably why so many people fail quickly or don't bother to try.

Hi K.,

My son had this problem, he is not 5. At 2 he had to be sedated to have his teeth filled and a full crown put on one. I bbreastfed him during the night. Once his teeth were "fixed" I slowed on the nighttime feedings and made sure he had sips of water. We brush his teeth very well and floss too. We have not had anymore problems, although his dentist, whom I love, says that he will be more prone to decay. So from my experience it is a combination of my son having teeth that are more prone to decay, and the breastfeeding through the night made it worse. Our peditric dentist, Dr. Peter Suh in La Canada is very gentle, non-judgemental, a true joy. The first dentist I went to was extremely rude and treated me like I was giving my kid soda in a bottle.

Good luck with this and you are not alone,
M.