# 16 month old nursling has bottle rot... help!



## balanced birth (Mar 26, 2007)

I am hoping that those of you fellow nursing moms out there can help me shed a little more light on our situation.

My beautiful nearly 16 month old girl has nursed since the day of her birth, only drinking my milk from a bottle 4 times a week while I work. We have brushed her teeth since they emerged at six months (although knowing what I know not about her mouth I wish I had held her down and power-brushed them). We introduced healthy whole foods at 6 months and she like most babies that I know nurses to sleep for most naps and every single night.

Last Sunday I noticed a very small chip on her right front tooth, by Tuesday I noticed that it was a little bigger. At this point I was chalking it up to a toddler fall (she is a rough and tumble girl). I intended to take her to the doctor and dentist to have it checked and possibly filed, but by Wednesday the chip was getting even bigger and we rushed her to the pediatrician. They referred us to the dentist for a follow-up and on Thursday we heard the shocking news.... our nursed baby has sever "baby bottle mouth" and is in need of oral surgery to cap the front top teeth, meaning general anesthesia and intebation.

I am still somewhat in shock and have taken great pride in all that I have ever exposed her to: we chose non-medicated birth, exclusive breast feeding, whole home-made baby foods, little to no sugar at all and regular tooth brushing. This news flies in the face of all of my choices and makes me feel like I have failed my sweet baby girl, letting her teeth rot in her head.

The dentist said the reason she has the decay is nursing her to sleep. I was nursed to sleep until I was nearly three, I come from a long line of nursing moms and have NEVER heard of this. Please help me with any information that you can. I am looking for personal stories, or even a through the grapevine wives tale of nursing causing this kind of damage. I am so afraid to keep nursing her at night, but know that night weaning will be traumatic for us both right now.

Thank you in advance for your help and stories.

Sarah
Mom to Alexandra


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## KimProbable (Jun 22, 2005)

I'm NAK so I'll keep this short, but I've been where you are.

DS had cavaties in two of his top teeth that became so large that they went right through and half his tooth had crumbled away by the time he was 2 1/2. The dentist tried to blame it on night nursing and I was quite upset.

Breast milk does NOT cause caveties. LLL has some great information and I think you should be able to search articles though LLL International's website and maybe also through KellyMom. Breastmilk has antibacterial and antiviral properties. It does not pool in the mouth like milk from a bottle does.

There are a few different theories about cavaties in nursing children. I've heard that cavity-prone teeth can be the result of mom being quite sick or stressed in the first trimester. There's also something about a virus or germ of somesort being introduced to baby's mouth from the parent's, but I'm fuzzy on the details. There's also genetic predisposition to take into consideration.

Big hugs to you as you go through this. DS had to go under general anaesthetic to get two crowns put in and it was quite stressful. Besides those two teeth, he's had a couple of other small cavities but things have gone fairly well.

As a side note, DD is a very very frequent nighttime (and daytime!) nurser and has no problems with her teeth at all.


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## meggles (Mar 9, 2004)

Look into Xytitol. It's a natural sugar that you can purchase and add to foods, etc. It is great for repairing teeth, I've heard.


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## lotus.blossom (Mar 1, 2005)

sounds like you have done everything right. My ped was happy that my son only gets breastmilk and water. He said that breastmilk is protective to the teeth (YAY, go ped!) and that juice is bad bad bad.

I hope you find some answers and solutions and please don't beat yourself up. Sometimes things are just out of our control even though we have the best intentions!


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## newbymom05 (Aug 13, 2005)

(Warning--this is long!) Another mom w/ an exclusively b'fed cavity baby, here. My DS also had classic bottle mouth at around a year, even though he had never had a bottle and never had any liquid other than water or b'milk. Don't beat yourself up, these things are genetic and they happen. The important thing is you've caught it. DS's tooth was so rotten it had to be extracted, but now his others are fine. It's been about 1.5 y/o's since we've started dental treatment, and at each visit the dentist is pleased and says we're in a holding pattern. Oh, and he thinks we stopped nursing and that's why. Ironically, when we first found out about the decay ds had a fabulously healthy diet and the decay was progressing super rapidly. Now that he's older we eat waaay more junk, including sweets, and his teeth are much better.

I have to respectfully disagree that while b'feeding doesn't CAUSE cavities, b'milk does contain natural sugars and will contribute to decay if you night nurse a child who has the strep mutans bacteria present in his/her mouth. I know that people will say that the liquid goes to the back of the throat, but if that's true, why the classic bottle rot formation? Also, when you sleep your saliva production is reduced so your teeth aren't getting the constant benefit of having 'stuff' washed off them. That double-whammy can lead to rapid decay.

Strep mutans bacteria is the culprit. Someone in your family is a carrier and so you probably all have it. Once your mouth is colonized, you pretty much will always be cavity susceptible. The SMB loves sugar and carbs, so you can try to limit those things but certainly brush after eating them, esp sticky things.

Anyway, here's what I think helped us halt our decay. I did stop night nursing, but mainly because I was so sleep deprived. We started about 14 months and didn't really stop until 18 months or so. Despite my views on what causes bottle mouth, I don't think that was a huge factor. I think what helped the most was brushing w/ xylitol (we use Spry infant gel) before bed, using a MI paste like Recaldent (you can get it over the Internet--I get it at an eBay store) and treating all three of us (DH, DS and myself) for strep mutans. We disinfect our toothbrushes every month or so and replace them frequently, and use a chlorahexidine rinse we get from the dentist. When DS was first diagnosed I would rub some on his teeth w/ a Q-tip but now I mainly just use it myself since I have cavities and we share food. There are also xylitol wipes called Spiffies that are good for pre-brushers (and they taste good), but we never got much use out of them. We do chew xylitol gum--ds loves it and so I'll give it to him after something sweet or sticky.

We also get fluoride varnishes when we visit the dentist, and use a very, very small amount of Tom's of Maine tpaste w/ fluoride for kids occasionally. A lot of people feel fluoride is a poison, etc., but I think it played a huge role in halting our decay. Fluoride is very controversial, though, because it IS a poison and if you ingest too much the permanent teeth may come in discolored, and there's no way of knowing until it's too late. Our dentist rec's a miniscule amount wiped on and off w/ gauze, and not every day. Recaldent is a lot safer IMO and I really do think it's strengthed DS's teeth.

Sorry for the novel, but we've btdt. You haven't done anything wrong, and yes, it is rare for a b'fed baby. I've met one other mom IRL who had this problem-my LLL leader. She had 4 kids, 2 w/ cavities and 2 w/ perfect teeth, and they all had similar diets and experiences. A good group for info and support is the Yahoo group veryyoungkidsteeth I got a lot of great info and support there. The forum here is also helpful IME.

Good luck, rotten baby teeth are horrible, but not the end of the world and certainly no reflection on you as a parent!

**Oh, and we had a cap put on w/ just DH and I holding DS, and the extraction was done w/ Versed since DS was only 14 months or so and we were afraid of GA. In hindsight, I wish we had done the GA--it was a horrible experience, but it had to be done.


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## balanced birth (Mar 26, 2007)

Thank you so much for your response. It is good to hear that your DS has halted the process, that gives me great hope for Alexandra. I think that we are going to go through with the GA and caps despite our fears. What were some of the factors that you considered when choosing against it? It sounds like the office does this routinely and has a ped specialist come down from UW for GA and monitoring.

The info on the products is greatly appreciated, I am going to go buy the gum today and chew it (I am sure that I am the S. Mutans carrier).

Again, thank you for your posting and support.

Sarah


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## balanced birth (Mar 26, 2007)

Thanks for your posting. I looked at the LLL article and it sounds like maybe antibiotic use during my pregnancy could have played a role. Thank you for reminding me to touch bast with LLL.

Sarah


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## newbymom05 (Aug 13, 2005)

My husband felt the risks for GA were greater than the risks for versed. He's pretty anti-med/intervention in general. If we need to have another procedure again, though, we will use GA because having DS awake was horrible for all of us. Our pedi dentist actually didn't want to use GA, so that played a factor as well. The cap was no big deal and was very quick--it took less than 3 minutes.

From experiences I've read from the Yahoo group, some people just have terrible luck where they have great diets, brush like maniacs, etc and the decay just takes over before they can do anything. That's one of the reasons we were willing to use fluroide, but again, it's no perfect solution. Def get the Spry and MI Paste and DON'T use the junky toddler toothpaste from the grocery store--that stuff is useless! Oh, and we use an electric character toothbrush and it has made brushing sooooo much easier.

Good luck--I'm sure since you're on top of this you'll be able to halt it. That's the key IMO--not just sitting back (like we did, thanks worthless pedi!!!) until there's a real problem, becuase decay will quickly spread to surrounding teeth.


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## StayAtHomeMama21 (Nov 6, 2006)

Can't write much now, just want to offer support, my little one has it too. We found out at 13 months, he is 21 months, and it's no better-no worse

still nursing.

I'll write our story later, he just woke up from nap.


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