This facebook live video was recorded back in December of 2019, before the pandemic, but the topic is still relevant and super important for new parents! Bottle lock is when your baby develops bacteria in their mouth that causes dental decay because baby went to sleep with a bottle. Take a listen to the video (or read below) about how you can prevent bottle lock and early childhood carries!
Hello, Facebook family. This is Dr. Joy Warr coming in with another installment of Facebook Live. My name is Dr. Joy Warr and I’m a pediatric dentist in High Point, North Carolina. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years, and I love what I do. Thank you for joining me. Come on in, call your friends let them know that I’m on the air answering some questions. I’m here to answer some questions for you. If you can hear me, please wave, or give me a thumbs up, if I’m coming through okay. If you can see me okay then please give me a thumbs up or wave, or something just so I can know that I’m coming through for you.
Now before we get started talking about tonight’s topic, I want to tell you what we’re going to be doing for the New Year Facebook promo. You could win some amazing prizes. Simply by getting in shape with me. That’s right. I’m going to be working out on Facebook, each day, come and check us out. Then you’re going to send us a video either doing or surpassing what I do now. I got to tell you; I work out all the time. If you’re in shape, then this contest is for you, we’re going to be giving away some great prizes. Look out for some more information about that in the coming weeks. We’ll be working out and getting in shape and that’s going to be a lot of fun.
Now, tonight’s subject we’re going to be talking about bottle carries, or as many people may call it bottle a lot. That simply means that your children or your baby, goes to bed with the bottle. Now that’s nothing new to a lot of people. A lot of medical personnel know that you shouldn’t put a child to bed with the bottle in their mouth. Now, there was a time when they would give them soda or something crazy even milk formula. Remember, all those things have sugar in them. The bathing of the teeth in the sugar in those things causes the teeth to rise. Now, what people don’t know is that you can get the same result from breastfeeding. That’s right breastfeeding, which means that when you feed your baby, you sit your baby by you and you kind of allow the milk to just be in their mouth, you may go to sleep and let the baby go there. Now I’m not saying that breast milk is bad, but you shouldn’t allow your child to just lay there with that human milk their mouth because breast milk has sugar in it as well. I’m not telling you don’t breastfeed your baby, I breastfed, but what I am saying is that there’s a way that you must do it. Nursing carries and bottle carries are both caused by allowing milk to pool or to stay in your baby’s mouth. Now, the kids who are most at risk for this are the kids who are what we call early teethers. That means if your child gets to around four months of age, then you should consider doing some other things for them.
In other words, you should number one, consider allowing them to unlatch or take the bottle away and you should wipe their teeth. There’s a great product that costs little and called Spiffies. That’s really the name Spiffies. They were invented by two female pediatric dentists who understand that it’s so hard to get kids to sleep once in nursing. They made these little wipes. They’re almost like little wet wipes. What you do after you feed them, after you breastfeed them or bottle feed them, you take that wipe, you open it up, you wipe their teeth, and then you put them on the bed. So, that squishy in those are cool. The other thing that you should consider doing if your bottle or breastfeeding your child, your infant at night, is that you can try to substitute something in the bottle if it’s a bottle. I’ve heard that water with a little pinch of cinnamon will help. And since cinnamon isn’t sweet, then that may kind of get your child to the point where you want them so that you can again Take the bottle away, wipe the tea, and then put them down to sleep.
The other thing that you can do is, if you’re nursing, or bottle feeding your child to sleep, you should consider taking it away wiping, and then kind of rocking them a little bit, and then putting them down. You want to make sure that you’re not leaving any milk or any residue on their teeth. Now at our office, we have what we call finger brushes, those also kind of work. The reason that we like those, and the reason that they do so well is because they had these tiny little bristles on them. And those bristles, they helped to kind of stimulate the gums. So, that’s something that you can do, you can get those over the counter. You can even get them at our office. Make sure that you’re not letting your child sit there with the milk or your breast milk in quantity.
One of the things that you should also consider is that there is what we call an age one, dental visit. The age one, dental visit is recommended both by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. That means we believe that by age one, your child should have a dental home. That’s right at age one. Now, I know what you’re thinking they’re going to do nothing but screen, but that’s okay because remember, that visit doesn’t take long, and that visit is for you. That visit is so we can look to check and make sure that you’re properly feeding your child, that your child doesn’t have the beginnings of nursing or bottle carries or bottle rot. Just to help you to see where you’re missing brushing or to give you some information about how you can take care of your child’s teeth. So, age one dental visit, remember to wipe before you put them down, and sometimes putting water and a little bit of cinnamon in their bottle. Those things help along with the finger brush. Those are all things that you can do to help your child to get to sleep at night.
Now I have some really, cool information for you, our office, any child, two and under we see them for their first visit, absolutely free. That’s right, free. You don’t have to have insurance. You just can call to make an appointment. All that information is on our website. So, any child two and under can come into our office, we will clean their teeth. We’ll put a fluoride treatment on the teeth and will kind of give you some real good tips about how to take care of your child’s teeth. Make sure that if you have any questions or any concerns, you let me know.
I want to thank you guys for joining me. We won’t be together anymore during the month of December because in two weeks, it’s Christmas. We want to give you some time with your family. I’m going to spend some time with my family. Then after the New Year, our next time together will be January the ninth. So, I won’t see you anymore this month. I’m sad about that. I do want to wish you the wonderful Christmas holiday that you deserve, and a great New Year. Hope you have a wonderful 2020 hope it comes in with the bang. We hope to see you next year. Take care and thanks again. Bye