Rice milk and 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?

I think you should get rid of the bottle full stop tbh.She can have other things to comfort her at night. She doesn't need drinks all through the night. You are right to be worried as any type of milk constantly at night will cause decay. Not sure if this is causing the yellowing or whether that is staining from the rice milk you'd be best to get her to see a dentist regularly.

Anything sugary like that will rot her teeth.

I read about a child who turned up at a dentist years ago. The child had rotten teeth down one side of its mouth. The other side was OK.

The reason was that the child was taking a glass of coke to bed as a comfort then tended to lay asleep on one side. The sugar in the coke ran down inside the mouth and the rotted the teeth as she slept.

Your DDs teeth are getting bathed in sugar from the milk all night. This will be eroding the enamel on the teeth exposing the dentine underneath which is yellow. Even good oral hygiene during the day will not prevent this as the sugar is attacking the teeth at night and they don't get as much protection from saliva at night.

I would go and see a dentist about the yellowness before she needs to have fillings or her teeth out.

oh. She has is absolutely terrified of the dentist. I think I better start a new thread asking for advice about how to get her to open the mouth at the dentist.

Has she been frightened by the dentist in the past? Do you know why she doesn't want to open her mouth?

Perhaps you could get an appointment before hers and show her how its done and that its nothing to be scared of. If you ring your dentist they might have some more ideas - I'm sure its not the first time they will have seen it. I bit my dentist as a child and although I have never forgotten it, they had when I asked her about it at my last appointment.

Abeta dad ...Rice milk isn't coke for goodness sake!!

i think it's probably a mistake to give a bottle with rice milk in for her teeth. i gave DD2 a bottle of water in her cot and she drank it fine it was better than nothing!!

DS2 (7) has recently had to have a number of teeth removed. He's never had rice milk through the night but used to drink it before bedtime. The dentist recommended that we stop this as the sugar attacks the enamel and then brushing straight away causes further erosion.

We were recently advised to stop giving rice milk daily to under fives as it contains too high levels of inorganic arsenic.

Ds2 sees the dieticians regularly at the hospital and they said its best to avoid it a a main milk drink after recent studies and they
are advising all patients to change to something else. It's a low risk but still.

Ds was furious at first but now he's happy with water.

I would definitely avoid it in a bottle at night too for the teeth. It's very sweet.

Blimey - I didn't know that!