Prolonged, on-demand breast-feeding and dental caries - an investigation

The study population consisted of 107 children who had been breastfed on demand for at least 2 years. The children were divided into a high caries group of 32 children who had developed 2 or more carious lesions by the age of 2, and a low caries group. Four factors were significantly associated with the high caries group; three of these factors were related to events that had occurred during fetal life. One of these was maternal stress and/or bereavement during pregnancy, another was reduced intake of dairy products, the third factor was medically diagnosed illness in the mother. (Most of these effects may have been related to the taking of antibiotics). Other types of medication and 27 other factors were not found to be associated with high caries children.