Cavities! Oh no! June 17, 2011

I have cavities?!

So in a routine dental visit this month we discovered that my three year old has some problems with his teeth. FOUR cavities! I have been trying to keep his diet as close to my ideal as possible, but given that I am not the only person who feeds him, this hasn’t always been possible. On top of that, I have not always been as firm about sugar as I probably should have been. I consider natural sugars (things like honey and pure maple syrup) less harmful in general due to their other nutritional content, however he still probably gets too much. So after some internal struggles (which involved a certain amount of self-flagellation) I have decided that I probably need to stick to my guns better than I have been.

The real problem that I am having is that I am doing so many things RIGHT. Raw milk, lots of butter and high fat, high vitamin foods. Liver regularly. So the thing I have concluded is that it is the sugar and (duh moment here) the flour products. We eat a lot of bread – home made, fermented even, but it is still there. I am just frustrated I think because this is something that I feel like I was doing right and now I find out that my efforts, though good, may not be enough! His father – sorry babe – has terrible teeth and while we have always kind of assumed it was dietary (sugar, sugar, sugar) I am beginning now to think it is hereditary since the kiddo seems to be suffering from similar issues and his diet is significantly better than his father’s was at the same age.

Regardless, there will be some changes and I will renew my efforts to eliminate those things from his diet of which I know he eats too much. And luckily the trip to the dentist was painless – no screaming, no crying, no trauma. But I am determined to keep it from happening again and am hopeful that this can be accomplished.

Have any of you combated tooth decay successfully using diet alone? I’d be curious to hear your stories!