If You Want Your Baby to Have Good Teeth, Forget Dummies and Bottles and Give it a Real Breast

An Italian University tested 1,099 children, and found that those that sucked on dummies or thumbs were substantially more likely to have misplaced teeth as adults.

(PRWEB) November 20, 2004 -- If you want your baby to have good teeth, then forget dummies and bottles, and give it a real breast.

Adult teeth grow in the same places as their milk teeth grew, so it is essential that these grow in the right place, right from day one. Otherwise, the teeth may be uneven, or spaced wrongly, which can only be corrected by wearing braces.

This University of Milan tested 1,099 children, and found that those that sucked on dummies or their thumbs (known as non-nutritive sucking), were actually four times as likely to have open bite!

At particular risk, are those babies three months old or younger, who were bottle fed, and also those who were still sucking their thumbs, or who had a dummy, when they were over a year old. These two high risk groups were found to be more likely to have milk teeth in the wrong place between the ages of 3 to 5 years old.

In this study, more than one third of children were found to have this problem. About 13% of them had what is known as an anterior open bite problem. This is where the top and bottom teeth do not meet up properly. Also 7% had a posterior cross-bite, where the top and bottom back teeth do not connect properly.

It seems that the major problem is sucking a thumb or dummy, as this seems to cause more problems than being bottle fed. One of the reasons for this may be that typically, a baby may suck a thumb or dummy for much longer periods of time.

So, do your child a favour, and offer the breast -- not a dummy or bottle. And adopt a strict no thumbs policy!

For more information about babies, http://www. babysourus.com has a wealth of information.

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