Alder Hay Program - Tooth Brushing?

[Trojan1970]

Hi - I guess a lot of people watched the Alder Hay program last night? I missed the start of it and tuned it to see the poor little mites having teeth removed.

Did I get the gist of it right - the tooth decay was from having a bottle in bed at night?

My DS (2.3) brushes his teeth in the bath then gets into bed with milk in a sippy cup. Am I getting it wrong?

He brushes in the morning too with electric toothbrush (God bless Ben 10 gadgets!) Should I be getting him to brush his teeth after his night time milk?

He's showing no signs of decay and the dentist was happy with him at last appointment.

What does everyone else do?

Your poor DD Elibean .

My dentist said the Alder Hey programme had highlighted how common the problems were.

Have to say, we used to go to an NHS dentist and had to wait at least an hour to be seen (obv not great with young children).

We changed to private and we never have to wait. Having said that there is a slight cost involved ...

Is ketchup really that bad? Obviously it is only eaten with meals, and we're always told that if giving juice/sweets it is best to give them with meals.

If you smother all your meals with it, you're probably taking in quite a lot of sugar and acid. I presume there aren't too many kids who swig it straight from the bottle, but I may be wrong.

A TA at my daughter's school believes that ketchup counts as a portion of veg, so it's possible that some parents are promoting it as a health food!

I think the little girl on the programme was having a large bottle of ketchup a week which is a bit extreme. Her mum was smothering her food in it so she would eat her veg.

differentnameforthis- quick question. DD still has bedtime milk, and I always brush her teeth afterwards, but should I be leaving it 20 minutes? Can't really see her staying awake for that long, certainly not with her current routine!

poozled how old is your DD?

Mine is 23 months and I've just stopped her bedtime bottle. Saw dentist today and he said drop the milk at bedtime completely and just give her water after dinner if she wants a drink.

HTH

Speaking of teeth brushing, any tips for a 2.2 year old who clenches his lips so I can't get in properly and clean his teeth.

The 'struggle' is making teeth brushing worse!!

Hmmm DD is 20 months. I don't really want to drop her bedtime milk yet tbh as I will worry about her getting enough milk otherwise. And also she's not great at eating her dinner. I suppose I could move it to earlier in the evening though.

PiratePrincess, please don't think that because you had to wait that your dentists wasn't good with children!

NHS get so little time for appointments that they often run late in order to get the treatment done! If they kept to the times rigidly, there would be half filled teeth everywhere!

Also, treating children does take longer, because you have to spend a certain amount of time talking to/showing them what everything is, in order to relax them etc...then they may not be cooperative, or keep closing, so you have to repeatedly dry/prep the area!

Unfortunately NHS can't really pick & choose how much time they spend with pts as they don't get paid for that luxury!

You are paying a private dentist for his time, so he can make an appointment however long he needs to, without it impacting on other pts.

pozzled...yes you should be waiting! I know it is hard & sometimes I couldn't wait that long & both dds at some point have gone to bed without brushing!

I now give dd2 her bottle just after dinner, so she has some time after that before I brush. (also because I have to change her nappy straight before bed because she tummy sleeps and always leaks if she has her milk too soon before bed).

Ketchup isn't that bad! It is all about moderation & if you have to smoother your child's food like that mum did, then I would suggest that you try re-evaluating what you are giving them!

It won't hurt a child not to eat their veges now & then, but the ketchup will damage teeth!

One thing this programme has done has made people who's children have good diets etc panic. That means we may start seeing an increase in sugar free buying & therefore an increase in Aspartame!

Sugar over Aspartame anyday!

zapostrophe, your 4yr old does not have the manual dexterity to efficiently clean their own teeth! Doesn't matter if you are watching & it takes 2 minutes, she won't be doing a good job! Please help her.

Sorry, zapostrophe him

Unfortunately NHS dentists can't really pick

Phew! Ds2 loves ketchup, but doesnt have that much and certainly not every supper time

Oh thx for this thread this send me into a minefield if should I be doing this should I be doing that!

Ds3.5 and dd1.5 both have milk for bed and we had milk last night and then brushed. Think I will bring milk forward to dinner time though so can leave 20 mins. ( another thread said 30 m?)

trying to cut juice intake down as my dc love their diluting juice.

This program made me sad and mad and very worried.

netti, the acid attack takes 20mins, so as long as you leave it as least that amount of time, you are good to go!

We get through (I would guess) about 1 bottle of Ketchup (400 ml) every month to six weeks. I don't eat Ketchup ever, and DD only ever has it when her brothers are around and DSS1 is definitely the big Ketchup consumer in our family. I would guess that DD has 30 mls of Ketchup a month max. That doesn't bother me at all.

As in all things, it's a question of moderation...

"Sugar over Aspartame anyday!" Is that from a teeth or health perspective differentnameforthis?

I agree with you 100% btw, just looking for extra ammo the next time DH buys DS a sugar-free drink!!

Health really. You can limit/prevent damage done to teeth by sugar, but there is no limit/prevention once Aspartame gets in your body!

Everything in moderation & good oral hygiene, in most cases (weak enamel etc) will prevent problems.

Thanks different.

I got my first filling at 28 (and that was because I had an exposed air bubble in my fissure sealings) so I'm hoping I've passed my good enamel onto my children. DH's teeth are good too. No sense in risking it though so we're stopping the bedtime bottle tonight.

It's going to be milk before bath and teeth brush after bath. Water in bed.

I hope DS agrees!!

We're cutting down on raisins too as I'd heard they were bad for teeth. Is that correct?

My kids brush their teeth morning and night. One of my dc's always has "a warm milk with a cup and a lid" in bed after tooth brushing. Last time the dentist saw my kids teeth i was praised as they all have perfect teeth not a filling between them!
They do have sweets at least once a week (i try to make it chocolate or sugar free gum), they don't get fruit juice more than once a week. Never lollypops. No fizzy drinks.
I am not so sure it would be bottles with milk in causing damage personally. :-S

GS, yes raisins are really bad as they are full of fruit sugar/acid and stick in teeth.

After seeing all these different threads on milk and brushing teeth, last night I refused my special needs dd age 4, her night time milk. It was the only way she would ever go to sleep, however last night teeth brushed into bed and no milk, within 10 mins she was asleep!!! I thank that programme so much (even though I didn't watch it) as the scary thought of her having her teeth out made me do what I had previously been scared to for fear of the consequences

Raisins do get stuck yes, but again, as with anything....moderation! Raisins were/are dd1 & 2s favourite snack & their teeth are OK.

multimummy, ditch the sugar free gum. It has sorbitol in which causes diarrhoea & other sweeteners which are not good.

Milk can cause problems if it is a regular thing & the teeth aren't taken care of. It will take longer than say, coke would, but it will damage the teeth.