to get my judgey pants on and pull them up HIGH...

[NoWayNoHow]

... when I see pre-school children with rotten/rotting teeth?

child

Grumpy I don't think many would disagree with that. But as some aren't due to diet and poor oral hygiene it is wrong to judge unless you know the reasons.

hairfullofsnakes - breast milk can be a problem if it's allowed to pool in the corners of a sleeping childs mouth, but that wasn't what i was saying, it's either water or breast milk for my toddler, neither of which anyone approves of you get as many "oh poor child his mother is mad over protective looks when you ask for water as you would if you ordered a coke.

disclaimer

I would never give my children coke, diet or otherwise!

DD gets the looks when she says "No thanks I'll just have water"

Marianne - I never ever have fizzy drinks in the house. Squash is a treat. Milk or water here. But whether I give them fizzy drinks or not it is totally unrealistic to think that they will never ever have a fizzy bottle of pop.

blonde

I was only saying that if there are people who think that diet fizzy drinks are somehow better or healthier than sugary drinks, they are wrong. Diet fizzy drinks are terrible for teeth, they have nasty artifical sweeteners in them and caffeine which is not good for children.

Oh Marianne I know what you were saying, and I know how bad they are - DD wasn't able to have diet drinks though due to the sweetners in them.

But I hate the attitude of some of the people on this thread that if your child has a very occasional glass of coke then their teeth are going to immediately rot.

(She's 12 now and I cannot remember the last time she had a glass of fizzy pop of any description, maybe 4 or 5 years ago at a family dinner with my in-laws - as she's got older she's happier to say no thanks I prefer water)

I do not think you should judge parenting based on a one off snapshot, whether it's behaviour like a tantrum and how the parent manages it, or rotten teeth, or the age that a child is in nappies.

Unless you live with that child 24 hours a day 7 days a week you cannot judge. Ever. IMHO.

No fizzy drinks here either. Ds2 has never had one.
No snacks between meals either
I've been so so careful, there is nothing I could have done about it.

here ladyoftheunfortunatemanor

the legions of dentists/students who've treated my little girl say variously that her hypoplasia is down to being prem, antibiotics in early infancy or placental failure- the reason she was prem.

Obviously they're chatting out of their arses, and dd was secretly quaffing Irn Bru whenever my back was turned. Next time we go to King's Dental Institute I shall put the ignorant fuckers straight

Hey springheeled, you are quite right that enamel hypoplasia is an issue in your case but it is still rare and the majority of children who have decay, don't have it because of hypoplasia or "genetically weak teeth" etc etc. My brother has hypoplasia (measles) and has only just come round to the fact that I'm his dentist (due to us both being in the army).
However, decay due to sugar is far more prevalent than decay due to hypoplasia. Having a caring and knowledgable mum like you will be the reak charmer in helping you and dd to overcome any issues.
Hyposplasia correctly managed by a concerned mum (lots of mums aren't) has the potential to be minimally problematic.

Hope all is well, dd sounds like she was born to be a survivor!

Grumpy - just a question. As part of her condition, DD also had loads of infections and antibiotics. Would they also have weakened her baby teeth then?

I hope they give you a wedgie/melvin.

eeek, I don't treat children generally so I'm digging through my memory. Basically, teeth spend a few years maturing inside the gums before we see them. Once we can see them, any infections, antibiotics etc will have no effect. If children have infections at birth, this will affect their baby teeth, otherwise, infections around 2-4 can affect adult teeth.

Once teeth have erupted, drugs/infections will not affect them, save for sugar causing decay.

Grumpy - thanks for that - makes sense then because DD was on the supplements/milk replacements from 10 weeks until she was 5.

So the 4 or 5 glasses of full sugar coke probably didn't do the worst damage

I'm just hoping that my ds's adult teeth have enamel on them. The specialist said there was no way to know and we'll just have to hope for the best.

Blonde, so sorry that your dd has had to go through all of that. She sounds an amazing wee girl.

Ladyofthemanor, there are definitely some people who do not look aft their childrens teeth but for those of us whose children were born with no enamel or other medical conditions which affected their teeth, your comments are hurtful.

Helibee - well said.

She's great, but stuff like this really gets my back up.

Her adult teeth are great so far, but she's had to have braces, but sure that's something she might have needed anyway. She's paranoid about teeth cleaning, and has an incredibly healthy diet, helps that it's "cool" to drink water, she gets bottles of water when other kids get bottles of fizzy stuff.

But when you've had a child hospitalized because they aren't gaining weight, had to have all sorts of nasty invasive tests, stuff like what LOTM is saying really makes me cross.

Unless you've lived it, you truly cannot understand. She couldn't even have a digestive. Or a piece of scone if we were out. Or sausages at a BBQ. Truly very difficult to live with - especially when she got bigger and realised that she wasn't getting the same as the other kids if we were out - no ice creams at the beach for example.

She is incredibly sporty and you definitely would never know the start she had to look at her

Hope all is well for your DS.

digestive biscuit

And I should add, the stuff you think with your first when they are just over a year old is all fine and dandy, but real life is different.

As children get bigger they WILL occasionally have foods you don't approve of - even if it's only at some other child's birthday party.

A balanced diet means just that - no foods are totally off limits to normal children, just they shouldn't have the "bad" stuff on a frequent basis.

No, no, you're all wrong. The teeth are the only part of the body where there is absolutely no natural variation, and no possibility of any genetic or environmentally induced deformity.

Glad you've cleared that up for me MrsTittleMouse.

I'll let the specialists know at the end of the month when DD has her check up.

Thanks for that.

Thanks blonde, ds has to have another op next week at Yorkhill and hopefully he won't knock the caps off of the teeth this time :) he was still dozy from the anaesthetic and walked into the giant connect 4 in the playroom at Yorkhil and knocked a cap off!

Fingers crossed

Jeez...

fingers crossed for you helibee

I wasn't a religious brusher as a child, I was the 3rd and my Mum was manic at bedtime routine so I went without doing it unnoticed. I eat everything I like, have the occasional fag and even now forget to brush but I have a dead straight row of pearly white teeth with 1 filling. My sister who was a pampered 1st born had better treatment and has so many false teeth and veneers. I think so much is down to genetics.