Breastfeeding at age 2 or older increases a child’s risk of severe dental cavities by the time they’re 5, independently of how much sugar they get from foods, researchers say.
To investigate the effect of prolonged breastfeeding on children’s teeth, Karen Glazer Peres of the University of Adelaide in Australia and colleagues analyzed data on 1,129 children born in 2004 in Pelotas, Brazil.
By age 5, nearly 24 percent of children had severe early childhood caries, which researchers defined as six or more decayed, missing or filled tooth surfaces, according to the report in the journal Pediatrics. Close to half of children had at least one tooth surface affected.
Children who had breastfed for at least two years, which was close to one-quarter of the group, had a higher number of cavities. Their risk of having severe caries was also 2.4 times higher.