Toddlers who still drink from a bottle harming their teeth

Drinking a bottle of juice between meals isn't good for baby's teeth.

I was up in the bleachers watching the last few minutes of the junior high volleyball game when my friend and fellow school parent leaned over. "Don't look, Helen!" she warned. I, of course, looked right away, curious to see what she was trying to shield me from.

The sight was alarming, indeed. A little girl, about 2½ years old, was wandering up and down the sidelines, sucking on a baby bottle. It was bad enough a child that age was still being given a bottle, but when I looked more closely, I noticed the bottle was filled with a dark liquid.

My friend, an observant preschool teacher, nudged me again, pointing out that the little girl's mother was hovering nearby with a can of caffeinated cola in her hands.

An older child, still on a bottle, drinking soda pop between meals -- three strikes. Since she was not my patient or relative, or even an acquaintance, I left her to her own dental fate, taking small comfort in the knowledge that none of the sugary liquid was going to spill and ruin the school's new gym floor.

I really have nothing against bottles when they are properly used to provide breast milk or formula for infant nutrition. I do encourage parents of both breast- and bottle-fed infants to introduce sippy cups just for practice, soon after the child turns 6 months old. Some pick it up more quickly than others, but eventually all children do learn to drink from a cup.

Infants who drink from bottles should not be put to sleep with them or be given bottles while in bed. Pediatric dentists note that once teeth come in, even unrestricted overnight nursing can lead to problems. It's unlikely that parents will wipe or brush babies' teeth after they fall asleep, and this prolonged overnight exposure to "fermentable carbohydrates," as my dental colleagues like to refer to these sugary liquids, can lead to baby bottle caries or tooth decay.

A good time to get rid of bottles and switch to full-time cup use is around the first birthday when the transition to whole milk is also recommended. Parents can drag this process out a bit longer, but parting with the bottle will not get any easier as the little baby turns into an opinionated toddler. While you can quickly wean an infant off the bottle, toddlers are much like 50-year-old smokers -- they usually resist and will need to go cold turkey to break the bottle habit.

Bottles, and sippy cups for that matter, should be used when the older infant or child is seated for a meal. Walking around with bottles or cups filled with any sweet substance, whether it be milk or juice (or pop!), leads to overconsumption of calories and constant exposure of the teeth to sugar.

Kids who drink a lot of sugar between meals tend to fall at the extremes of the growth charts. One group tends to be overweight from drinking far too many calories. Their scrawnier counterparts are usually poor eaters who fill up on milk or juice and then naturally turn down food when mealtime rolls around.

Toddlers and older children should be offered water between meals. Water is a great thirst quencher, has no calories, doesn't fill kids up and won't cause tooth decay.