Toddler tooth decay experiences?

[C33P0]

Yesterday I noticed a yellowish spot on the front of one of my 2 year olds molars. I'm pretty sure it's tooth decay, which I feel awful about.

Obviously I will try to get her to the dentist as soon as possible, if they will allow an appointment at the moment. But in the meantime, I'm wondering if anyone has any experiences they can share? How easy or difficult is this to stop? Diet obviously is the main thing, but will the dentist offer any treatments - is there actually anything they can do to help? I have an older child (5) who hasn't had any problems with his teeth, at least so far, but I seem prone to cavities and had some on my milk teeth when I was a child.

FWIW, the sources of sugar in her diet are breastfeeding at bedtime, which I have now stopped (ie. I now feed her and then brush her teeth rather than the other way round), and she has Kiddylicious strawberry bakes as snacks, probably about 2x per week. The only other sugary things we give her would be after a meal, eg a small amount of chocolate once or twice a week, a flavoured yoghurt (the Yeo valley fruity favourites ones) about twice a week. We might have pancakes with maple syrup or croissants and jam for breakfast once a week. She snacks between meals - generally milk, or one of the bars I mentioned above, or maybe a bit of banana or apple.

I'd never thought before that it was a bad diet, but obviously it's too much sugar for her.

And I should say that under normal circumstances, she goes to nursery two days per week. They have puddings and often cakes or cookies at teatime, so this is probably an issue too.

Hello. We are experiencing the same problem at the moment. My toddler has two patches of decay on the side of both top molars. We have been to the dentist and we are just monitoring at the moment. We have cut down on added sugar and keeping fruit for mealtimes. I have introduced more dairy for the calcium and because I read that cheese neutralises acid. I also make sure that vitamin d is taken every day. We are being super hot on brushing which is difficult to say the least. In hindsight there was too much sugar and brushing was a bit half hearted because it is such a battle. Hindsight is a wonderful thing I guess. I must admit I do worry about it alot but try not to. It sounds like you have spotted it early and hopefully can prevent it progressing.

I've also asked nursery for snacks to be low added sugar so if the others have a cookie or cake they might give my child a yoghurt or fruit pot. I know that still contains sugar but I guess its just about minimising the amount and type.

Thanks @Greybearskip. Did the dentist not suggest any fluoride varnish or whatever it is called, or a different toothpaste? Just curious. Also was your appointment recently? I called the dentist this morning and it sounds like they are not doing appointments right now.

My daughter is changing nurseries soon to one with healthier food (not due to this), but I am so glad now. She loves cakes and biscuits so I think she would find it really difficult if she couldn't eat it.

Also do you have any recommendations for sugar-free snacks?

Snack wise - cheese & crackers, celery with natural peanut butter, pitta bread with hummus, crudités with dip, homemade savoury muffins, toast, bagel & cream cheese.

Great ideas @MrsMcTats. No @C33P0 they didnt do any varnish although I will ask next time. We saw the dentist just under a month ago. I think with one so young there is a limit to what they can do but they did say they hope if I change diet, lots of cleaning etc they hope the decay will stabilise. In terms of snacks my little one likes cheese so cheese spread sandwiches, natural yoghurt, humous, plain rice cakes, apple slices and sugar free peanut butter, we do have fruit but accompany it with cheese.

We use a baby flouride toothpaste too

Thanks all, some good ideas for snacks here

So much useful advice on this thread, thanks all. I've got into a bad habit of giving my DS a couple of pieces of fruit at odd times of the day (ie not with a meal) and I really need to stop this because it ends up just being a stream of sugar and I'm worried about the impact on his teeth. Some great tips here, thank you.

Aim to reduce the frequency of sugars to meal times only and try to have at least one meal a day sugar free if you can. Snacks and drinks in between meal times should be sugar free. Only water or milk for drinks.

Watch out for hidden sugars, in particular dried fruit, cereal bars, juices, honey, fruit yoghurts. Anything that says "no added sugar" is likely to be sugary so don't be fooled into thinking that this is a good option.

Be particularly cautious of sweet things that take a while to eat or get stuck in the teeth (cereal bars/raisins/sticky sugary sweets etc.)

Make sure you are using a toothpaste with fluoride (age appropriate).

Use a smear of toothpaste and get them to spit but don't rinse after brushing and ensure that you brush at least x2 daily.

Always use sugar free medicines if possible.

This guide is good

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/601834/healthy_mouth_children_quick_guide.pdf

Just for those who aren't aware your child should be having vitamins every day including vitamin D

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/vitamins-for-children/

@Signalbox would you include fruit as sugar, so make sure all snacks are completely free of fruit? Do you think Weetabix for breakfast count as a meal with sugar in it? Just trying to figure out how far I need to go.

would you include fruit as sugar, so make sure all snacks are completely free of fruit?

A piece of whole fresh fruit as a snack is generally considered to be fine. As soon as it is processed (smoothies/juices/dried) best avoided. I think that there is a small amount of sugar in Weetabix but it’s pretty low and so long as you are not adding sugar on top it makes a good breakfast. Personally I would count Weetabix with milk to be a sugar free meal.

Those kiddylicious bars are almost 1/3 sugar with 30gr of sugar / 100 gr
The worst sugar is the one that sticks to the teeth.
Having a sweet breakfast, a croissant, a piece of toast or even a pancake is fine, what is not is constantly eating sweet stuff over the day.

Going totally sugar free is quite complicated . Even the classic white toast when chews turns into sugar and can cause tooth decay. Concentrate the sweet meal at breakfast and for the rest of the day, have real food, not processed savoury snack which are as bad. Crisps despite being salty are even worse than sugar for the teeth

There is a really nice book called the dental diet www.amazon.co.uk/Dental-Diet-Surprising-between-Life-Changing/dp/1401953174?tag=mumsnetforu03-21 it explains the best diet for decay and to avoid braces.
Money very well spent.

I know @LeGrandBleu, those Kiddilicious bars are really bad and I'm surprised they can market them for kids. In retrospect, I don't know what I was thinking of with buying them.

In terms of what you said about sweet things being concentrated with meals, I think that is mainly what we are doing, and therefore we will have to cut back on sugar in meals too. Typical day is
-Weetabix or cornflakes with whole milk for breakfast
-banana or Kiddilicious bar or milk for morning snack
-scrambled eggs and toast for lunch and some strawberries
-milk for afternoon snack
-cooked meal (eg baked potatoes and chilli), sometimes but not always followed by Yeo valley flavoured yoghurt or a couple of pieces of chocolate for dinner
-breastfeed before bed

Gosh that doesn’t sound bad at all OP esp if you ditch the kiddilicious as a snack. Are they just drinking milk and water? No juices / squashes / smoothies etc?
Of course it is possible that this isn’t decay at all and that it is staining caused by other factors. Do you do the toothbrushing? Just make sure when you brush that area it definitely gets some fluoride tp on it x2 daily.

What strength fluoride toothpaste are you using? My dentist advised that the ones aimed at kids are usually not strong enough. You need at least 1450 strength.

The number of sugar hits per day is what is thought to be important, it's suggested that 4 a day is okay so for a child this allows 3 meals and a sugary snack. As pp mentioned bread, crackers etc are good if additional snacks are needed without sugar. I'm not familiar with the kidilicious bars but I'm assuming it's dried fruit which many dentists will say is a big no no. Fresh fruit although contains sugar is often thought to be okay.
Your diet doesn't sound bad really so I would really focus your efforts on effective tooth brushing. Perhaps if you feel you and therefore your DD are prone to tooth decay how about introducing a brush after lunch time too.

We thought my daughter had decay, but over time it became apparent she actually has a problem with her enamel. In hindsight we should have realised as her dad has the same problem, but he only got it in his adult teeth so we didn't think. So when you can get to the dentist it may be worth checking for anything like that. We were given a tooth mousse to use before bed to help prevent damage to her teeth as her enamel is not properly protecting them which has helped as they were very sensitive.

Yep that's a typical day, thanks that at least makes me feel like I'm not neglectful! Of course, nursery (2 days per week) is worse with a pudding after lunch and cake or cookies at teatime. Plus raisins at morning snack.

I have managed to get a dentist appointment next week so hopefully we will find out of it is definitely decay or if I am jumping to conclusions.

We used toddler toothpaste with 1000ppm fluoride in it, but yes, I will increase that now.

Hello I noticed a patch of yellow on 2 of my daughters molars when she was about two. I freaked out thinking decay but couldn’t work out why as she didn’t have a particularly ‘bad’ diet and we were fastidious about tooth brushing.

We went to the dentist and it wasn’t decay but Enamel hyoplasmia. Basically when the tooth was being made it formed without all of its enamel. If it’s the same, there’s nothing you could have done to prevent it, it happened in the womb. Dentist just said to keep eye on it, careful brushing and not too many sugary snacks.

Thanks @Pluckyduck, this does sound like a possibility

Just a quick update- I took DD to the dentist this week. Dentist said it is eroded, but not decayed. Could be that it was chipped, or due to acidic food (though that is unlikely as the other teeth are all fine). I guess it could be enamel hypoplasia, but the dentist didnt mention that. She put some fluoride paste on it and we have to go back every 3 months. We are supposed to put a blob of toothpaste on it each night after brushing her teeth too.

I'm relieved it isn't decay, but we have to keep an eye on it now, so still need to be careful.