Rice milk and yellow teeth

[SuperAmoo]

HI all, my 4 year old still goes to bed with a bottle of rice milk which she drinks through the night. I'm starting to worry about her teeth because rice milk is so sweet. Her teeth are very yellow. She has always brushed her teeth very carefully day and night and recently she's started using an electric tooth brush. But the yellowness persists. Does this mean the rice milk is damaging her teeth? Or are some people's teeth more yellow than other's? I really don't want to make her stop having the bottle because it's a really special comfort to her and she really loves it. She's only just started to sleep through the night in her own bed and I don't want to disrupt her routine. She can't have normal milk and she wouldn't touch oat or almond milk. She also refuses water in her bottle. Any thoughts or experiences?

You need to stop the bottle, sorry.

Milk is high in sugar, rice milk ditto. Bottles are also bad because they encourage the milk to stay in the mouth for longer. And lastly, sucking on it through the night basically means she's continually recoating her teeth in sugar over and over again through the night.

Seriously, you need to stop it, before the teeth actually get damaged, not just discouraged. I know it might mean some broken nights till she gets used to it but that's better than rotten teeth.

Not to scaremonger, but it is now advised that rice milk should absolutely NOT be given as a drink to under fives, because of relitively high levels of inorganic arsenic. There are lots of other threads on here about it.
We were told to stop giving it to our daughter, replacing it with fortified oat milk. It wasn't easy, as she too wouldn't touch oat milk at first. We had to mix it together gradually, adding more oat milk each time to try and disguise the taste.

Agree with Casserole about the bottle, though.

Hope you find a solution, perhaps some sort of reward for drinking from a cup before bed?

oh poop. I did know about the inorganic arsenic but I figured she's drunk about a pint of it every day since she was a year old so she's screwed already if what I heard about rice milk is true. That's a terrible thing to say, I know, but she'll be 5 in 9 months anyway, I figured, what's the point in stopping the rice milk now. And i also figured it won't be long till they say that oat milk contains unaccepably high levels of mercury or pesticides or something like that. I mean come on rice milk, oat milk, almond milk - it's all totally unnatural and MUST be bad for our children!!! I guess I was secretly hoping she'd get away with it. Ok.....I'm going to have to think about stopping the rice milk. I better stock up on calcium supplements.

Some people do have more yellow teeth than others, but it is really really bad for her teeth to be having rice milk from a bottle all through the night.

I think you'll just have to try and introduce a new routine, bottle and a story maybe and then brush teeth before bed.

I do agree with you about the age thing, I'm sure she will be fine as she is nearly 5.

Calcium supplements?????

There's lots of food with calcium in, not just dairy, like green leafy veg (broccoli a good one), brown rice, lentils etc.

Seriously stop with the bottle. And you knew about the arsenic and 'hoped' you'd get away with it? Strange attitude.

Sucking on a bottle throughout the night really doesn't sound like a good idea regardless of the contents tbh.

She's really old enough to not need it by now. Can't you just give her a glass of rice/oat milk before bed and not whilst in bed? It's not only bad for teeth, but also carries a risk of chocking in the night. She might wake a bit more for the first few nights, but after that she'll be fine, honestly.

I'd also take her to the dentist to check on her teeth, if nothing else it will reassure you.

put less int the bottle, and take it out before she falls asleep.

make it a gradual weaning, but with a aim to stop.

you can talk and explain things simply to most 4 year olds.

is she dry at night?

does she eat a good range of calcium rich food? or has dietian advised supplements?

what is your bedtime routine?

check with the dentist ,and as other posters mention, yellow teeth can be normal. mainly for adult teeth , rather than childrens milk teeth.
yellow adult teeth are stronger than the white ones (sorry not much good info for you at the moment!)