Why a bedtime glass of milk can ruin your child's teeth

Why a bedtime glass of milk can ruin your child's teeth: The lactose in it is a type of sugar and can be harmful at night
Angela Debley, 40, from Bracknell, took son Fin, then 8, to the dentist
Found he had developed two cavities in his milk teeth in six months
Frequent exposure to sugar can cause damage to teeth
'Milk during the day is fine, but the lactose can be harmful at night'
Angela Debley took her son Fin, then eight, to the dentist for a check-up, confident that he'd be given the all-clear.
After all, Angela, an admin manager from Bracknell, Berkshire, was a self-confessed 'health freak' who was always careful to give her two sons, Fin and Joe, then three, a nutritious diet. She was also meticulous about their dental hygiene.
'I avoided giving them sweets in favour of what I believed was an extremely good diet full of natural foods,' says Angela, 40.
'Instead of fizzy drinks, chocolate and crisps, the kids would have pure fruit juice, muesli bars and granola with natural yoghurt and honey. They also brushed their teeth morning and night.'
When the dentist broke the news that Fin had two cavities in his milk teeth, which had developed since his last appointment six months before, Angela says she 'felt like the worst parent in the world' - but she couldn't work out where she'd gone wrong.
'The dentist seemed to assume I was feeding him junk food and sweets, which was upsetting because we ate well.'
In fact, it was her children's healthy diet - and particularly their snacking habits - that had caused the damage.
Angela later learned it wasn't just the quantity of sugar that was the problem, but the frequency with which teeth are exposed to it. 'By offering juice, fruit and honey between meals, I was bathing my sons' teeth in sugar and acid.'
As Professor Damien Walmsley, scientific adviser to the British Dental Association, explains: 'Children today snack far more often than previous generations, which leaves teeth under constant attack.'
Last month, a Royal College of Surgeons report revealed that one-third of five-year-olds in England suffer from tooth decay, and it is now the leading cause of hospital admissions for under-nines.
The report, The State Of Children's Oral Health, found that every year 46,000 children were admitted to hospital for multiple tooth extractions - almost 26,000 of those aged between five and nine..........