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Night Weaning
This obviously isn't for me, but I'm trying to help a sister out (literally). My niece had a lot of bad (expensive) dental issues due to night nursing and she's really trying to prevent this with my 9 month old nephew. She's already taken him to the dentist and is brushing his 2 little teeth religiously but every dentist that she's seen has recommended that she wean him from nights by the time he's a year old.
His night sleep is really bad and he nurses a lot. He naps great during the day and doesn't nurse a ton. I guess those things aren't really helping the night problem.
Any suggestions to make this easier? He's been having some separation issues lately so it hasn't been going well but she figures if she starts now that will give her 3 months to work on things until he's 1.
Re: Night Weaning
Dr. Jay Gordon's Method is fantastic! Another good article: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/weaning-night.html
Also, there is very little research-based evidence that night nursing causes bad teeth. It is mostly anecdotal. http://kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/tooth-decay.html
Neena Mae. 1/7/10
"A baby nursing at a mother's breast is an undeniable affirmation of our rootedness in nature." - David Suzuki
That's a really interesting article Jennrs. I'll forward that information on to her.
She saw 3 dentists and one of them did say that as long as she brushed his teeth before he went to bed that he would be fine b/c bacteria was the bigger concern (like the article says).
The other two gave her the 1 year cut off date. They said that it was more of an issue when the top teeth came than the bottom teeth, which I thought was weird. My niece did only have problems with her top teeth but I don't know what kind of connection that is. I guess she is definitely more paranoid this time b/c the surgery was so expensive and they live on a pretty tight budget.