Why is bottle feeding bad for their teeth?

[Wailywailywaily]

OK so I know all the standard wisdom about it being best that they are weaned off the bottle by the time they are one-ish. I think I know that drinking from a bottle /beaker is not good for the teeth.

I have kind of let things slip and now realise that DS is over 2 yrs and still having three bottles a day...

This is going to sound so daft because my problem is not weaning DS off the bottle - he is perfectly happy to have a cup - the problem I'm having is with DH who is refusing to accept that there is a problem with DS having a bottle. I can't point to any hard evidence that a bottle is bad for a 2 yo.

So can anyone help, what is the actual evidence with regards to this? I'm afraid perceived wisdom is not good enough in this instance, please be scientific.

Using a bottle tends to mean that the contents trickle slowly into the mouth and bathe the teeth in fluid for longer periods: Especially when older children use a bottle for comfort rather than drinking quickly because they are thirsty. It is worse if they fall asleep with it in their mouth. If this is juice or squash this can be devastating for their teeth, but even milk contains sugar and so can still cause damage.
Also if your son is willing to give it up now I would go for it, because you can't be sure he won't develop a renewed attachment to it in the future. Would your husband still find it acceptable for him to use it when he is 4?

as view said it is the time the fluid is around their teeth,

I think that at over 2 it does need to stop, stop the day time ones immediately, then in a week or two stop night time one, this is sometimes harder as some kids are not so keen on milk in a cup, do not leave him with bottle for more than 5-10 minutes and never in his cot or bed as that will do damage. I do hope it is milk or water not juice in the bottle, make sure he and you brush his teeth properly afterwards

on christmas eve all bottles disappear for the new babies ( like dummy fairy) do not on any account get him a dummy instead if he has dummy it would be good if they disappearred at same time, with excitement of christmas etc it should be reasonably easy for him to forget bottle and I'm sure santa will bring bring nice new cup!

having spoken to many parents with dummy fairy most say first day difficult second day fine but it may take 2-3 nights but rarely any complaining after just the occasional question, it will be easier than you think but make sure they truly disappear not like someone whose kid found them in drawer 3 days later!

I am a dentist there are scientific articles at the www.bda.org but it is a professional site and not all articles available to read so the dental health foundation site might be better at www.dentalhealth.org hope that helps DH see there is real evidence and reason for this

The American Dental Association has some pictures on this link- www.ada.org/3034.aspx

Thank you so much for your considered replies. I will forward those links on to DH.
It has only ever been milk or water in the bottle and I'm having no trouble with DS during the day, he loves milk from a cup. Its 4 or 5 in the morning when the trouble starts - I am happy to give him a cuddle and offer water till he goes back to sleep but DH just wants to sleep and tends to come into DS room and interrupt my comforting to give him a bottle . I just don't have the energy at that time to argue with DH and DS!
Its not helped by DS having had a cold for a couple of weeks so none of us are getting much sleep anyway.

i'm sure you will crack this one.
If you are too tired for any dramatics at the moment (and we all know that feeling) I would:
a) cut out the day time bottles
b)just make up the bottle before you go to bed, but over about a week dilute the milk until it is just water
OR
If you think it is the milk he wants give it him warm in a cup which he will drink down fairly quickly.

I'm fairly obsessive about teeth- not a dentist but a dentist's daughter -and yet I will admit that when ill,in the middle of the night, all of mine will very occasionally have had milk in a cup without brushing their teeth after because i didn't want to wake them up again. The youngest is now 6. None of them have fillings.