PEDIATRICS Vol. 64 No. 5 November 1979, pp. 701
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Night Breast-Feeding and Dental Caries

Louis M. Abbey DMD, MS1

1 Associate Professor of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Box 637, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298

It is of concern to some dentists and pediatricians lately that at-will nocturnal infant breast-feeding has been implicated as a cause of a dental caries pattern1,2 similar to "nursing bottle" caries.3

I submit that not a shred of valid scientific evidence exists supporting the contention that the practice of nighttime, at-will breast-feeding promotes dental caries in young children. Studies examining the incidence of dental caries in primitive cultures, where demand breast-feeding including at-will nighttime nursing is the norm4 and children are not usually weaned until 18 months to 3 years, continually report extremely low caries rates among the children.5-7