Feeding to sleep and brushing teeth

[pipnchops]

My DD is 8mths old and her first tooth has started to show this morning which is very exciting! I can crack out the tooth brush and tooth paste now and start giving them a clean twice a day but... At the moment her bed time routine ends with being breastfed to sleep and advice I've read says you should clean their teeth after their last milk feed. Am I going to have to wake her up after she's fallen asleep on me? This isn't going to go down well! Did anyone else have this problem and how did you overcome it? Thanks

[onedogatoddlerandababy]

I just carried on regardless, mine both had teeth fairly early (dd1 at 4 mths and dd2 at 13 weeks) and both were still being fed in the night as well as being fed to sleep.

There was no way I was brushing their teeth once asleep or in the night.

I did worry about it for a bit but then ignored it really

[MarinaCoyle]

I wouldn't worry about it. My DD has 9 teeth now and still has a feed before sleep.

The main thing with brushing it to get rid of plaque build-up (hence the idea of brushing before breakfast) rather than to "rinse" them of what they've just been in contact with. In fact brushing straight after food can cause more harm than good (apparently) as it sort of grinds the sugars in IYSWIM!

So carry on with brushing twice a day and having lovely sleepy feeds I'd say.

[pipnchops]

That's interesting, thank you for your replies. I always brush my own teeth after breakfast, so I need to change my routine!

[squizita]

I understand breast milk is not as risky to teeth as food anyway - antibacterial and washes down the throat past the front first teeth anyway.