My 4yo has tooth decay and I don’t know what to do.

[Mummypig2020]

Dd4 has visible tooth decay in two of her back teeth. At first I thought it was food stuck while brushing her teeth but it isn’t.

I don’t get how though. We brush twice a day and she doesn’t eat sweets really. She has dairy free chocolate once a week but drinks a lot of soya milk.

I feel awful and sick. Iv tried getting a dentist appointment but they only do it over the phone. It looks awful and when she’s talking you can see it.

I don’t know what to do. I feel like the worlds worst mum!

Does she eat dried fruit? It sticks to teeth worse than sweets do.

Could be any number of reasons, OP. Do you brush her teeth less than half an hour before eating or less than an hour after? That can cause decay through rubbing acid into the enamel. Do you let her brush her own teeth? If so, she may have the wrong technique- the advice is to do it for them until about age 7, I believe. Did you take antibiotics in pregnancy? If so, that can cause defects in the tooth enamel leading to decay in the baby teeth.

Either way, what's done is done. While you wait for an appointment, keep the area as clean as possible.

Dentist will fill the holes. Milk teeth still presumably?
Some children just have quite weak first teeth. Things like breast feeding or drinking milk at night, antibiotics can have an effect.
DD had some decay in her first teeth but none in her teeth now and is a careful brusher!

Her half brother has no enamel on his back teeth.

She eats a lot of fruit 🙈 and raisins!

We brush her teeth, she’s very good at it tbh. She likes to lay on her dad’s lap like she’s at the dentist lol.

My son has enamel wearing away and my dentist said childhood illness like chicken pox can be a cause too!

I had what were deemed 'soft' baby teeth. I had quite a few fillings, an abscess and teeth removed as a child, not nice.
However my adult teeth are in excellent shape - just to put your mind at rest.
Neither of my brothers had any issues with their teeth, we all ate the same diet and had our teeth brushed the same. It was bad luck, please don't beat yourself up about it.
Some dentists are doing appointments for kids, I'm taking my two for a check up on Wednesday. I would try phoning around.

My DS has a back tooth that's decayed really badly. The dentist had to put a metal cap over it and I felt like the worst mum ever! However he said that it was a weak and brittle tooth and It's common for milk teeth to sometimes come through weak. Nothing you've done op, it sounds like you've done everything right!

My daughter had this, the rest of her teeth were perfect except her back molars. Enamel hypoplasia, she had to have them removed.

One of my dcs had to have his four back molars out aged 4. No enamel on them.

If it's any consolation, he's 23 now and doesn't have a single filling.

It could be just not enough calcium. Soya-milk has significantly less than normal milk.
Does she have an allergy? If not, she just needs normal milk and cheese, especially if she hasn’t been getting enough previously.
If she does have a properly allergy, you can increase leafy green veg. My children would eat fish cakes made with tinned salmon at that age too. Egg yolks also have calcium in them.
Vitamin D is also essential to absorb calcium - I don’t know much about calcium supplementation with children, but you can ask your GP if it’s suitable.

She has a milk allergy.

Thank you! Will get more greens into her.

She still has child toothpaste, would it be worth using adult one?

What fluoride level does it have? 1450ppm is recommended at that age

She has an appointment next week for a filling :(

Poor lamb. Tooth weakness can be hereditary but bizarre - my DB had bad teeth from a child like his uncle and grandparent whereas I was fine. We were both on the same diet, clearly and he wasn't sneaking anything.

I would consult dentist and doctor and consider brushing after every meal. And after eating dried fruit - a lot sticks to the bigger teeth and are not much less sugary than chocolate.

Don't brush teeth directly after eating as that will rub enamel off the teeth.

My ds has got bad enamel on his back molars and also had a filling in his baby teeth. He has not had any fillings in his adult teeth so once the baby tooth came out he was back to having no fillings.
Keep up tooth hygiene with 1450ppm toothpaste and minimise sticky dried fruit and sweets

Try giving a bit of cheese after the fruit or raisins.