"Breastmilk rots babies' teeth after they are 5 months old...."

[evilstepmom]

this is the manure of a male cow, right????!!!

yep .. total bullshit

apparently it was in a paper? and more than one "well meaning" person has told me now. KNOW that it is utter nonsense but am getting fed up of gritting teeth and smiling..!!!

who said it? wot? where?

probably like a million other studies steeped in the smelly stuff!

is this the teeth they don't have yet?

it was on city hospital yesterday morning, a little girl had to have 12 teeth removed because they had gone rotten due to mums breastmilk. i remember thinking about mn reaction at the time! they did stress anything can rot teeth and put it down to leaving milk in mouth eg if you both fall asleep feeding as milk does have sugars in it. the mum also said it was something to do with her daughter having v soft teeth. however it was deffo designed to shock and i suspect lots of people will be using this as a reason not to bf

that would be them. if i dont wean dd soon then her little toothypegs will come through all black. apparently.

so what are we meant to do? rinse with mouthwash after feeding?!!

they said brush teeth as soon as they appear.

so will the teeth come through already black then? really didnt think there would be an ounce of truth in this one!

So does formula, that's why you're supposed to brush their teeth, that's also why children have milk teeth - to protect the adult teeth from rot.

It is true but has been taken out of context, like a lot of things to do with breastfeeding.

ah well, guess there's no point in brushing boy's teeth then as i've rotted them already!

The dd of a friend of mine has got some problems with her teeth. Her dentist has blamed breastfeeding. My sister in law is a dentist and also says bf rots babies teeth. I wonder what else we can blame bf on? Just as well my bf babies (now toddlers) buck the trend and have perfect teeth.

Message withdrawn

i dont think its true about teeth coming through black, i think there was something about if they have infections in baby teeth it can affect adult teeth (but wasnt really listening, sorry). they said if you let the baby fall asleep with milk it their mouth it is similar to letting them go to sleep with a bottle in their mouth. so its not so much the breatmilk as the way you feed

sooo annoying ! just goes to show that you can't win, no matter what you do! am angry at the people who mentioned it to me though, not the actual facts. nothings perfect, eh?!

it was one of those programes where all the way through they are saying 'later on, the girl whose teeth went rotten cos of breastmilk' then when they get to the actual interview it turns out to be not very true. unfortunately lots of people will have seen the 'later on..' bit and let that sink into their heads then ignored what was actually said. it was very irresponsible imo

And of course bottle-fed babies never get tooth decay Have a look at this article

well giggling seems to have cleared this up (somewhat) - not contentious at all imho, sounds like perfect sense.

Do you all start making 'WAH! WAH!, I'm not listening noises when bf is mentioned? Can't see that anything said is in any way derogatory about bf, it's merely giving sound advice about keeping teeth healthy.

I've never known City Hospital to be contentious at all!!!

"they said if you let the baby fall asleep with milk it their mouth it is similar to letting them go to sleep with a bottle in their mouth. so its not so much the breatmilk"

so the comparison with bottle feeding was made - god, get a grip!

Sort of true. breast milk contains a certain amount of natural sugars and if left in mouth eg feeding to sleep can cause tooth decay. I assume they say from 5 months because it is average age of first tooth. This was actually covered in my prenatal classes and they showed all sorts of gross photos with decayed teeth on young babies. Applies to formula fed babies too. That said, I did bf all my babies to sleep as I wasn't going to wake up a sleeping baby to brush their teeth.

Breastfeeding doesn't cause tooth decay

Bottlefeeding doesn't cause tooth decay

Most food/drinks don't cause tooth decay

BAD ORAL HYGIENE DOES

ignore, ignore, ignore..

Brush teeth as soon as they start coming thru, limit high sugar drinks from any type of vessel, limit sugary foods, brush teeth after breakfast, last thing at night and you're well on the way to good teeth.

Oh...and I doubt the teeth will come thru black. That means that the sugar would have to penetrate the gums to get to the teeth before they came into the mouth. Have been a dental nurse for 15 years and have never seen this happen in regards to feeding, trauma yes, feeding no.

Just another person flinging mud to (try) to make us mums feel inadequate!

MMM...so what happens to babies who get their teeth earlier or are born with teeth? Does the milk magically not affect them .

BF does not cause tooth decay!!!! This link on Kellymom has lots of info.

It was a person who was shown on that Hospital thing in the morning on BBC1.

there was a 3 yera old who had to have 12 teeth removed as they were so badly rotten.
it was caused by breastmilk.

THEY DID NOT SAY THAT BF ROTS TEETH!!!!!

what they did say is that when teeth come through the enamel is very thin, allowing a child to fal asleep whilst drinking ANYTHING can casue decay.
be it milk, breast or cows, juice etc it all contains sugars and if allowed to just sit on the teeth they can rot the enamel.

its nothing that any regular dentist patient hasn't heard before but the programme has just highlighted that it isnt just fizzy cola's that can casue such decay.

sandcastles - brushing teeth after breakfast is not recommended. This is from the British Dental Health Foundation Website :

"It is important that you brush twice a day. The best times are before breakfast and last thing at night before you go to bed. Eating and drinking naturally weakens the enamel on your teeth, and brushing straight afterwards can cause tiny particles of enamel to be brushed away. It is best not to brush your teeth until at least one hour after eating. It is especially important to brush before bed. This is because the flow of saliva, which is the mouth?s own cleaning system, slows down during the night and this leaves the mouth more at risk from decay."