teeth and night time breast feeding/bottle feeding - help and advice (dentists very welcome!)

[weejie]

help!

can anyone give me advice. My daughter is 19 months. She still wakes up once a night to feed, not every night, maybe a run of 4, then nothing for 3 and so on.

I used to breast feed at night, have been ill so nip up with a bottle of formula, hand it to her, she feeds herself and goes back to sleep. I head off back to bed while she does this.

I have watched her doing this to test it was OK before I started it as a regular thing and she has the bottle then puts it down then goes to sleep, so she doesn't go to sleep sucking the bottle.

How bad is this for her teeth? I know some people advocate night time breast feeding and co sleeping to three and beyond - I think if this is ok then her having a bottle of formula at night is fine. However other people have said to me this will rot her teeth.

I also give her a bottle as part of her night time routine - its bath, brush teeth, story with bottle, drink bottle in dark, bed.

How bad is this for her teeth?

I really hope these are both OK cos can't face doing controlled crying and can't see any other way out. Right now we are all very happy, and if it wasn't for this teeth issue I would be glad to carry on as we are.

hope someone can help

I'm not sure what effect it might have, but I also breastfeed DD (18 months) straight before bed and after she's brushed her teeth, so will be wathcing this thread to find out the answer!

I think this is a rather confusing - I've heard different advice from different people, including dentists.

I've spoken to a peadiatrician about this and she said the children she sees who have problems with their teeth are the ones who almost constantly have a bottle of milk/juice/coke in their hands.

I think it's a matter of common sense - I wouldn't worry about giving a bottle of milk just before bedtime.

and one during the night?

As for a bottle of milk at night - do you think she needs it? I would rather not give a child this age a bottle of milk at night, for one thing it's a bit of a hassle, unless they are ill or something.

What would she do if you replaced it with water, and explained to her why?

go mental...! and I'm quite ill at the moment so I just hand her a quarter bottle of milk and she goes back to sleep

I'll try the water and see what happens