Caring for your child’s oral hygiene begins at birth. How does this impact breastfeeding moms and their babies? How does breast milk impact the overall health of your baby’s mouth? How do cluster feedings and snacks throughout the day and night impact your baby’s gums and teeth? Learn more about the common concerns of oral hygiene and breastfeeding, and ways to overcome them.
The Boob Group
Dental Health and Breastfeeding
Episode 115, June 17, 2015
Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.
SUNNY GAULT: This episode of The Boob Group is brought to you by RuminaNursingwear. Hands-free pumping and nursing tanks and bras to support your breastfeeding goals. Visit www.pumpandnurse.com and save 20% with promo code BOOBGROUP20.
JEAN CHAN: We often hear we need to think about our children's oral hygiene when they're just a few months old, so what does this mean for breastfeeding moms and babies? What about when they cluster feed, wake up in the middle of the night or snack throughout the day? How do we properly care for our baby's teeth? I'm Dr. Chan, a pediatric dentist here in San Diego. This is The Boob Group.
LEILANI WILDE:Welcome to The Boob Group, broadcasting from the birth education center of San Diego. The Boob Group is your weekly online, on the go support group for all things related to breastfeeding. I’m your host, Leilani Wilde, I’m also an IBCLC and owner of Leilani’s Lactation and Doula Services.
Thanks for tuning in today and being a loyal listener of The Boob Group. Don’t forget to visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter for updates on the new episodes. You can stay connected by downloading our free apps available in the android, iTunes and Windows marketplace. Now Sunny is going to tell us more about our Virtual Panelist program.
SUNNY GAULT: Absolutely. Okay, so if you're not in the studio with us right now while we're recording, we do have a great way for you guys to get connected with the show, to participate in our conversations, and that is through our Virtual Panelist program. You can like us on Facebook, our Facebook page for The Boob Group, you can follow us on Twitter, we have a special Twitter account just for The Boob Group, and I'm going to be posting some of the questions, the conversation that we're talking about here in the studio.
Feel free to just chime in, share your own personal experience. Follow the hashtag #BoobGroupVP, that VP stands for Virtual Panelist, to get connected. Okay, so let's meet some of the panelists that are joining us here in the studio, and I'm going to kick stuff off, because I'm going to be one of the panelists.
I'm Sunny, I am 37 years old and I'm the owner of New Mommy Media, which produces The Boob Group. I have 4 children of my own, I have an almost 5 year old, a 3 year old and identical twin girls who are 18 months old and I am breastfeeding my twins.
MONIQUE: My name is Monique, I'm 33, I'm a middle school teacher. I have two children, a girl and boy. My girl is 5 and my boy is 3.5.
JEAN CHAN: My name is Jean Chan, I'm a pediatric dentist and I am 42 years old, wow. I have 3 children, my oldest is 11 and I have boy-girl twins, Jordan and Jessica and they are 9.
SUNNY GAULT: That’s awesome, I didn't know we had another twin mom in the studio!
JEAN CHAN: I know. I can belong to all four of your groups. I qualify.
LEILANI WILDE: Nice.
SUNNY GAULT: Okay, so before we get started with today's show, we're going to talk about a fun breastfeeding headline, and this one you have probably seen, especially if you follow The Boob Group page on Facebook. You have definitely seen this, because we posted it. Elle Australia, you know, the magazine Elle, they are releasing a cover of one of their models, Nicole Trunfio I think it's pronounced, for their special subscribers they have this beautiful breastfeeding photo of this model, and again it's just for their subscribers.
If you are hoping to just catch this on a news stand somewhere, they thought it wasn’t quite appropriate for everyone's eyes, at least that’s what the editor is saying, but it is just for their subscribers and it's causing a lot of commotion, especially on Facebook. Obviously a lot of people are praising the fact that Elle is at least releasing this in some capacity, and that they just were willing to take a chance.
It's a beautiful photo, obviously a beautiful woman with her baby and she still looks so stylish. If you look at this image, it's like wow! That’s pretty amazing. So I just wanted to toss it to you guys to see what you guys thought about this photo and Elle's participation.
LEILANI WILDE: I personally think it's great, making it more normalized everywhere we go, women are beautiful when they're breastfeeding, when they're pregnant, just being women. All shapes and sizes, so kudos. I just think it's great, I would love to see more of it.
MONIQUE: It's fabulous, I think it's a great photo and it shows a lot of just how natural and beautiful breastfeeding and the experience can be for a mother and her baby.
SUNNY GAULT: Yeah.
JEAN CHAN: Yes, I really think it shows how normal it is to breastfeed. When I'm out and about, a lot of moms do a double take when they see other moms breastfeeding, I feel like if they saw images like this when they're out and about it wouldn’t make it so weird or taboo.
SUNNY GAULT: Yeah, the hashtag that's going along with this is #NoramliseBreastfeeding, so I'm glad you said that, because that’s exactly what they're trying to do. I just love the story behind it, because they weren’t even planning to make this about breastfeeding, it was literally... She was sitting in the chair, getting ready and she had to breastfeed her baby.
The stylist saw it and just said "This is so beautiful, you should get out in front of the camera." I believe that the image that’s going to be on stands for everyone is actually her holding her baby, so baby may have been part of the whole thing, but as far as breastfeeding, this was not planned. It was just life, right? Life takes over, and then we see beautiful images like this, so kudos for Elle for releasing this cover.
LEILANI WILDE: It's beautiful.
MONIQUE: It's awesome.
LEILANI WILDE: Today on The Boob Group we're discussing oral hygiene and breastfeeding. Our expert, Dr. Jean Chan is a dentist who specializes in pediatric dentistry in San Diego, California. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Chan, and welcome to the show!
JEAN CHAN: Thank you for having me.
LEILANI WILDE: Dr. Chan, what are the concerns of oral hygiene in breastfeeding?
JEAN CHAN: Well, that's a very good question, and I think there are a lot of factors to discuss in that. I think the American academy of pediatrics, and the American academy of pediatric dentistry both agree that breastfeeding is wonderful for children, a great option and breast milk in general, I think studies have shown it has protective chemicals and antibodies and different things that actually are good for teeth.
I think some dentists think that night nursing or frequent on-demand nursing is a cause for dental decay, and we definitely see kids that are 18 months old, under 3 years old that have something called early childhood caries, and that is a pretty serious disease when that happens. I think understanding a little more about how to prevent that process from happening is really key.
So breast milk in itself, again, I think studies have shown that it does not cause dental decay, but when breast milk mixes with solid foods in the mouth, it can be damaging to teeth in certain vulnerable children. Vulnerable children meaning kind of a high caries risk group of kids, and some of the factors that can contribute to a child being high caries risk would be genetics, a lot of that comes into play.
We'll talk a little bit about that as we go along. Past cavity experience, diet, frequent exposure of teeth to foods that can cause cavities, like milk or snacks, frequent snacking. People know sugary foods, but I think with brushing and flossing and good hygiene, different preventative strategies, we can really help parents and moms and new moms to really focus on preventing cavities, which would be our goal.
LEILANI WILDE: Does the mother's oral hygiene have an impact on the child?
JEAN CHAN: Yes, absolutely, and I think we kind of promote the term "Healthy grins begin before birth." Not really even at birth. I think people don’t realize the impact that their oral health can have on their newborn infants. Ideally, if we could talk to our pregnant mothers before they have kids to really make sure that they're on point with their routine care and obtaining care if they have any active cavities in the second trimester.
Really focusing on their own oral hygiene is really important, because once babies are born, from that time to about the time of the eruption of the first tooth, which happens around 6 months of age for babies, some babies as early as 4 months, some as late as a year, they actually get colonized with strep mutans, which is a particular bacteria that causes cavities.
Babies, when they're born, they actually don’t have that bacteria yet, so they're transferred from the parent. The bacteria actually comes from either the parent, the caregiver or other siblings.
LEILANI WILDE: And how is that transferred?
JEAN CHAN: Through saliva contact. So really, again, helping parents to understand avoiding those kinds of behaviors and activities, for example sharing utensils or if a pacifier binky falls on the floor, you know, cleaning it with your mouth and then giving it to your baby.
Those kinds of direct activities, if those could be avoided for a parent who has actually had a history of high cavities. Not all people have that, 20% of the kids and people out there get 80% of the cavities, so it's those high risk kids and that high risk group that you're trying to target.
LEILANI WILDE: So some of it runs in the family?
JEAN CHAN: Absolutely.
LEILANI WILDE: Interesting.
JEAN CHAN: So that would be part of education and information intake, to be able to have an individualized plan for people.
LEILANI WILDE: Can you tell us about the use of Xylitol, and is it still recommended?
JEAN CHAN: Yes, xylitol is something, again, that can be very useful for a mother who is worried about their baby getting cavities if she has had a history of getting cavities. So again, good routine care for the mother, good information, keeping her teeth healthy, not having paired on with the disease herself is important.
And then from there, they’ve had a lot of studies that have shown that if you chew xylitol gum from about 3 months after delivery up until your child is about 2 years old, you can reduce the amount of strep mutans that you have, therefore transferring less to your baby. I think if people understand the use of xylitol, it can be very helpful.
MONIQUE: Dr. Chan, are there other ways of getting xylitol, like certain foods that are higher in xylitol, that you could maybe eat instead of only the gum option?
JEAN CHAN: I don't know if there's a lot of naturally occurring xylitol. I know they make it, it's a sugar alcohol out of Birchwood chips, so I'm not sure, but there are pretty readily available products out there for you to access it. If somebody has TMJ issues and they can't chew so much, a mint or a lozenge is good also. Again, probably the five minute rule would apply, and then looking for a dosing of 1-2 grams each time you have it.
LEILANI WILDE: Interesting. Monique, have you ever been advised before on how to care for your children's gums and teeth while you were breastfeeding?
MONIQUE: I have. Every member with my first, with Violet. She had a pacifier, and when it would fall down or hit the couch or something, I would put it in my mouth to clean it off, like Dr. Chan was talking about, and I did hear from a few people that I shouldn’t do that because it can transfer bacteria to my daughter.
That was one of the things that I did hear. With my son, I heard that I could start brushing his teeth much earlier than I thought I could with my daughter, so when he had teeth at maybe 6-7 months old, I did start to kind of clean off his teeth with a little cloth or something like that. A few times a day. That was something I heard.
LEILANI WILDE: Oh, good. What about you, Sunny?
SUNNY GAULT: The only thing that I got was taking them to the pediatrician, and then when their teeth kind of start to come in, they use a little fluoride rinse or something just to kind of prepare the teeth. As far as really little babies, no, in fact I'm fascinated by this whole transferring of the saliva stuff. I am notorious for sticking something in my mouth and giving it to my babies.
I'm like, oh the horror stories, no! But no, I never heard of any, I have four kids and I had never heard of any of that. When I was going through that with all my kids I did not know, so going through the research and learning with Dr. Chan here, we're grateful to have you here today. Dr. Chan, what would you recommend for the mom and the baby who are in the midst of cluster feeding, and dealing with that?
JEAN CHAN: If I understand correctly, cluster feeding happens earlier in a baby's life, to about 3-4 months, or does it kind of extend past that?
SUNNY GAULT: Well, even part of that is growth spurts and stuff like that, when they're doing frequent feeds, and it could last for 2-3 days where they want to constantly eat.
JEAN CHAN: Yep. So during those time periods, I think just being more aware that, you know, it's the frequency of exposure to different things that can promote the bacteria to be happy to make cavities. Basically when you're inoculated with the strep mutans, which is the bacteria that cause cavities, it needs a food source to be able to produce acid as their waste product to harm your teeth, or to make holes in your teeth.
When kids are breastfeeding exclusively, again there are those protective parts of the breast milk that help to protect the teeth, it's kind of after the introduction of the bacteria, sometime around the time of the eruption of the first tooth, somewhere around there, so 4-6 months.
Also the introduction of other foods that combine to kind of overpower some of those protective mechanisms that are in the breast milk, and that’s when breastfed babies can get cavities, if that makes any sense. It's confusing for a lot of people, because there are people that breastfeed their kids and feed them regular foods, and never get a single cavity, but their bacterial loads might be pretty low as a family and they're practicing good hygiene, a good diet and those kinds of things.
There are people that do all of those things and their kids don’t get cavities, so it's confusing.
LEILANI WILDE: Something that just crossed my mind, which is our pets, they're licking the insides of our babies' mouths sometimes, because that's what dogs do, right?
JEAN CHAN: Yeah.
LEILANI WILDE: Is there any concern for that, transfer of any bacteria?
JEAN CHAN: I guess they would have similar issues, they get their teeth cleaned and cavities as well, so I think during that early time period, kind of avoiding those kinds of activities in general would probably be best.
Especially if you're concerned, if you have a family history of getting cavities, or if there are any things that a pediatric dentist or a dentist find for your child that show them "Oh, your child has the potential risk to get cavities." Whether it's higher plaque, decalcification areas, any of those factors, then you really need to kick it up a notch in your prevention.
LEILANI WILDE: What about those babies that are actually born with teeth?
JEAN CHAN: Right.
SUNNY GAULT: What? I didn't even know that was possible! Are you serious?
JEAN CHAN: Yes, and those are generally their real baby teeth, so sometimes they're a little bit wiggly or loose, and we want to leave them there. A lot of moms come in and say "Take that out!" and we general encourage the parents to keep them in, because those are actually their real baby teeth, generally.
LEILANI WILDE: They don’t get another set of those baby teeth, right?
JEAN CHAN: Right.
LEILANI WILDE: So, do you normally recommend to start cleaning those?
JEAN CHAN: Yes, absolutely. For young kids you can use a wash cloth with no teeth, but once a tooth erupts, generally a dentist would prefer to clean teeth with a toothbrush, and there are baby or infant kinds of tooth brushes with very soft bristles, a small head, a large handle, and just a wet bristled brush at first is very effective to just remove any debris, food particles or plaque or bacteria that stuck to the tooth.
After that, when the kids are older, you can do other things. You asked about the cluster feeding, I think using just common sense and "Wow, my child is going to breast a lot during these next couple hours of the day, I might want to brush and floss afterwards." If their teeth touch, flossing-wise I mean.
Just too kind of make sure, since they are having a more frequent exposure to something that could promote cavities, I might want to change a little bit, my brushing and preventing strategies during that time period.
LEILANI WILDE: A lot of babies that are maybe even reverse cycling, those babies that nurse all night long and don’t nurse at all during the day. So mom is sleeping and feeding her baby between all that sleep, right? She's not going to get up and take care of those teeth, so maybe first thing in the morning?
JEAN CHAN: Yes, and probably right before going to bed also, making sure that the teeth are clean, brushed and flossed. Again, flossing depends on the age, because then during that long stretch of sleep there's nothing on the teeth, hopefully you'll get a long stretch at some point. And yes, right when they wake up in the morning.
SUNNY GAULT: Dr. Chan, what would you tell the parents that are trying to decide whether or not they should have their babies' tongue or lip tied, clipped or lasered? Would it affect oral hygiene if they decided not to have it done?
JEAN CHAN: Absolutely. I thinkDr. Larry Kotlow has been a pioneer in this, and he has published studies that have actually documented and shown, especially for maxillary labial tie, or a lip tie, some of the kids that we see present with a pretty severe lip tie. They're very fibrous, they might be two banded or three banded.
They're thick and have a lot of tissue associated with them, and when your lip is at rest there are some folds that can happen up in the vestibule area that can trap breast milk, trap food, trap formula, trap milk.
That can definitely cause an increased risk of getting cavities in the upper front teeth. Even just being able to clean well on the molar gum line on the bottom if you're severely tongue tied, it's pretty tough for your tongue to actually move around, and trying to fit a toothbrush along the inside part of your bottom molars at that gum line is already pretty hard for a lot of kids and infants and parents to do, so having the tongue be able to move to the side so you can actually reach some of those areas that are hard to reach are important.
SUNNY GAULT: So for a mom and a dad that's facing that choice, and they're like "Well we're just going to bottle feed anyways." You would highly recommend them do it, by what age?
JEAN CHAN: I think as soon as it's identified is probably the best age, because kids get teeth at 4-6 months, and if there are other breastfeeding issues, I think a lot of moms think breastfeeding is going really well for them, they think it's wonderful and fine, but really they're tolerating some symptoms that they don’t really need to be tolerating if their child is lip tied and tongue tied.
SUNNY GAULT: They don’t even recognize the difference, because they don’t have anything to compare it to.
JEAN CHAN: Exactly.
SUNNY GAULT: I'm sure you kind of covered this already, but is it more about preventative care at this time, or is it about getting the babies familiar with oral care?
JEAN CHAN: I think it's both, and I think a lot of education is important, because it's not rocket science, but if you're not told to floss your child's teeth when they first come in and they're touching, then a lot of parents tell me "I never knew to do that." Breastfeeding and just cleaning the gums, cleaning the teeth, sometimes it's not innate, and knowing not to share. Two out of the four of us didn't know here today not to share utensils or a binky that has saliva transferring that bacteria, how that happens, I think just educating people is important.
LEILANI WILDE: Sunny mentioned fluoride rinse, is that something that you recommend?
JEAN CHAN: Well a fluoride rinse, and over the counter one, like Act is probably one of the more common ones, it is generally recommended for ages 6 and older. Not really for a young age. If somebody, again, is high cavity risk and the pediatric dentist feels it might be important for that child, and again direct supervision by the parent and very specific instructions will be given, but generally it's 6 years and older because that's when kids learn how to spit well, and you don’t want them swallowing anything in a mouth rinse.
MONIQUE: I had an experience once, the very first time I learned how to gargle I choked and sputtered and got sick, and I never liked using it for years after that. It was an awful experience.
SUNNY GAULT: What we did at the pediatrician, it was more like a paste almost, that they did. I guess it really wasn't a rinse, I think I said rinse, it really wasn’t. it's more like "Oh, some teeth are coming in, we're going to paint some fluoride on there." So obviously that's a little bit different because it's thicker.
JEAN CHAN: That was probably a fluoride varnish, yes.
SUNNY GAULT: There you go.
JEAN CHAN: Varnish is a higher concentration of fluoride that's actually painted on and it sticks to the tooth, so you're ingesting less.
SUNNY GAULT: Got it.
JEAN CHAN: Yes, that's because enamel when it first erupts is a little immature, so they're just trying to give it a bit of a vitamin boost in a way.
LEILANI WILDE: Interesting. When we come back, we'll discuss with Dr. Chan what methods can be used to prevent dental decay for our toddlers and up. We will be right back.
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LEILANI WILDE: Welcome back to the show, we're here with Dr. Jean Chan. Dr. Chan, what should we do about the toddlers who snack on breast milk throughout the day?
JEAN CHAN: Kids can be grazers, which I think is what you're talking about. All my little grazers, and that's just how they need to get their nutrition. I'm not the person to say that kids shouldn't get their nutrition that way if that’s how their bodies need to work. I think just recognizing that my child is a grazer, recognizing that frequency of exposure to foods, drinks and different things that could feed bacteria.
What can we do to help add to the prevention plan, generally for most kids and people we tell them to brush in the morning and night, and floss at night for my kids that graze more often, I would say brush and floss after each meal if you could, just to increase the number of times that you brush and floss and actually clean the teeth.
Every time you introduce something other than water or breast milk into the mouth, you actually change the PH of the mouth, the oral cavity so that it drops lower, it becomes more acidic, the bacteria get happy, then you're feeding the bacteria and it sticks to your tooth, causing your tooth to have a problem.
LEILANI WILDE: Are there other alternative healthcare options?
JEAN CHAN: There are, I think seeing a pediatric dentist, having routine care and getting information that's good is wonderful. Fluoride varnish which we talked about already. I think identifying kids and families that are higher risk, and treating them differently is important.
There's a caries risk assessment that can be done on your child's first visit, and the first visit should be generally around 6 months of age, to maybe age 1 at the latest. Kind of the time when your first tooth comes in. A lot of that appointment is really just talking, educating and collecting information from the families, from the mom and dad so that we can develop a good plan moving forward. If there's a big family history of getting cavities, then our plan needs to be a little different and we need to educate a little differently. I think that’s really important.
Other alternative care options, I do have older patients that parents have tried essential oils or coconut pulling and different options like that. I think there are a few other ones. Fermented cod liver oil, some other things, but I don’t really see them using them on infants and toddlers in that age group. Generally they're doing it with older kids.
LEILANI WILDE: What is coconut pulling?
JEAN CHAN: That is something that again, if you actually read the instructions for coconut pulling, you have to hold the coconut oil in your mouth for I think 20 minutes, and if you have ever done it, I've tried it a few times, it's a long time. Again, if you actually read about some of these other alternative methods, or even xylitol gum and you really understand what it takes to actually work, you have to be highly motivated to actually implement a program like that.
MONIQUE: What would that do, holding the coconut oil?
JEAN CHAN: It has to do with some of the fat solubles, bacteria, killing bacteria and kind of overall gum and gingival health, those kinds of things. Again, I think in the toddler and infant age group it's not very applicable.
LEILANI WILDE: Yeah.
JEAN CHAN: So there aren’t really alternatives to good brushing, good flossing and home care, just being informed.
SUNNY GAULT: Monique, have you tried any other preventative cares?
MONIQUE: I started bringing both of my kids to the dentist pretty early, and I actually floss my children's teeth from the time they got their first molar. The teeth were touching. My daughter's teeth don’t really touch each other, except for the ones in the back, the molars. But my son who is 3, his teeth always touched, so I had to start flossing his teeth a lot earlier than my daughter's.
So flossing at a very early age has really helped keep their teeth healthy, we don’t have any problems with cavities and I do have them brush their teeth twice a day. The first time they brush their teeth in the morning I let them do it, now that they're a little older, and then at night I make sure that I get in there and get the spots that they might’ve missed I the morning. That’s how we take care of their teeth.
SUNNY GAULT: Do you find that you have to struggle with them at all to brush their teeth or floss?
MONIQUE: In the beginning, when they were under 2 years old it was very difficult to floss and get their back teeth really well, but now they're so used to it that they do pretty well, but I do have to make sure that I get in there at least once a day and make sure I get the spots, because they might just do the front.
SUNNY GAULT:I used to do it with my kids, Aahs and Eehs. I'd say do your Eehs, now do your Aahs and it would help get their mouth in the right place so I could do it.
MONIQUE: My daughter is really interested in rinsing using like an Act mouthwash or something, because she's seen it at her friend's house and I'm like "I'm not sure yet." So yeah.
SUNNY GAULT: Well now you know, 6 years.
MONIQUE: Yes, six years. Next year.
LEILANI WILDE: How about you, Sunny? Have you done any preventative care?
SUNNY GAULT: Preventative care. Well we fall into the category of "I look at candy and I get a cavity." My husband and I both, so I don't know if we've passed that onto our kids, I'm assuming we have, and we have four of them so we obviously know that brushing our teeth is really important, especially more so now for us, because I do think we fall into that high risk category.
But I don't think, short of "Okay, it's morning time, we're brushing our teeth." And "It's evening time we're brushing our teeth." We haven’t done the flossing thing, I feel so bad right now. We haven’t done the flossing thing yet. I am kind of concerned for my twins, because they have a tendency to feed a lot, and they're the grazers that we talked about earlier. It's breast milk, but they get it in addition to something they had for lunch.
They're on solids too, so I am more concerned for them because with my boys I only breastfed them for maybe 6-8 months, but now my twins are 18 months and we're still doing that, so I feel like it's a great bonding thing between us, but I am nervous about what that’s going to do to their teeth, so I feel like I should be doing more with them, I definitely need to get them into the dentist.
LEILANI WILDE: We know a good one here, don’t we?
SUNNY GAULT: I know, I should make an appointment.
JEAN CHAN: So Sunny, when I hear your exact story, which I hear often from parents, again you're somebody we would target in terms of giving you a good prevention plan and really explaining to you what to look for, how to brush and floss well, and the importance of flossing so you understand that and can implement the plan at home.
SUNNY GAULT: Sure.
JEAN CHAN: That's half the battle, implementing the plan. A lot of things I tell my parents, it's really important that they actually get comfortable when they're brushing and flossing for their kids, because it could be a 15 minute job. You think it's 2 minutes, but it could be 15. I think also seeing what you're doing is really important. Seeing the bristles of the toothbrush touching the teeth that you're trying to clean.
A lot of parents are just standing in a tiny bathroom, hunched over, trying to brush their child. The child is looking around or doesn’t like it, doesn’t like the toothpaste or wants to spit every 5 seconds. So if you lay down and you get all your tools, your toothbrush, your floss, your toothpaste, Kleenexes, a toy, a sand timer so they can watch the time, give them your iPhone so they're like watching the time.
Give them something to be distracted with, then you can sit on the floor and get comfortable. You can floss, see what you're doing, and have a good light. Then after that you brush, again for 2 minutes, which is a long time. Time yourself, you might be surprised that you might be in the 30 second category. And then when they're all done, they can go rinse and spit at the sink.
Really for young children under 2, you can use a training toothpaste or wet bristled brush. After age 2, from 2 to 3 you can transition to a fluoridated toothpaste. You only really need a little smear the size of a piece of rice, and after age 3 you can transition to like a small pea sized amount of toothpaste with fluoride. So between 2 and 3, transitioning to a fluoridated toothpaste would be what we recommend.
LEILANI WILDE: Right, great. Well thank you so much, Dr. Chan, Monique and Sunny for sharing this invaluable information about how to care for our children's oral hygiene and the realities of how we are caring for their teeth. For our Boob Group club members, our conversation will continue after the end of this show as Dr. Chan will discuss how extended breastfeeding can impact your child's oral teeth. For more information about our Boob Group Club, please visit our website at www.newmommymedia.com
SUNNY GAULT: Hey boob group, it's time for a fun segment on the show we like to call our Boob Oops. These are funny stories that you guys share with us about your breastfeeding and pumping experiences. Some of this stuff you really just can't make up, and today's comment comes from Tally Downs, and Tally submitted this via Facebook. She says "When I first started nursing my son, I had extreme oversupply.
He was wiggling while I was on my laptop, and ended up coming off, spraying my entire laptop with milk. I couldn’t find a towel or anything and I occasionally still find a dried droplet of milk on it." Tally this is so funny, I can't tell you how many times I'm actually at the computer, feeding my twins and I have these visions of milk flying everywhere.
I'm glad it didn't hurt your computer, can you imagine if you had to like take your laptop into the computer store and they're like "How did this happen?" and you're like "Well I was breastfeeding my kid and milk started squirting everywhere." Anyways, fantastic story, thank you Tally! If you guys have a fun comment that you want to share in our Boob Oops segment, be sure to either send us an email at firstname.lastname@example.org or you can call our voicemail, which we encourage you to do. It's 619-866-4775. If we read your comment on the air, we're going to give you a one month free subscription to The Boob Group Club, so Tally, that's coming your way. Thanks Tally!
LEILANI WILDE: That wraps up our show for today. We appreciate you listening to The Boob Group.
Don’t forget to check out our sister shows:
• Preggie Pals for expecting parents
• Parent Savers for moms and dads with newborns, infants and toddlers
• Twin Talks, for our show with parents of multiples.
Thanks for listening to The Boob Group: “Your judgement-free breastfeeding resource.”
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.
SUNNY GAULT: New Mommy Media is expanding our line up of shows for new and expecting parents. If you have an idea for a new series or if you’re a business or organization interested in joining our network of shows through a co-branded podcast, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com .
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