Childrens flouride toothpaste, good or bad?

[Aidensmom]

After I caught my son, who will be 4 next month, trying to eat some of his children's toothpaste yesterday (thankfully I caught him in time), I looked up some info on the internet about flouride poisoning. A tube of flouride toothpaste, in that yummy bubble gum flavor they make for kids, can KILL a child. I looked more into it, and even found there are people that have symptoms of flouride poisoning from using flouridated water for all their life.

Just wondering, do other people use flouride toothpaste for their young children, or use something else? Do you think it is dangerous? Why? Why not?

I think I am at least going to stop buying the bubble gum flavor for him so it is not so tempting.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Flouride consumption will lead to white specks on the teeth. Didn't know the part of a child could be killed from that.

My oldest will spit, my youngest does not--so we bought them flouride-free toothpaste until we can teach the youngest to spit. They use "esther"--actually Tom's Toothpaste (they named the bird on the label Esther--no idea why). We get it from wild-oats. The only flouride-free stuff from regular stores I could find was the gel cleaners for babies.

My friend from the UK had a son who hated American kids toothpaste. Evidently they don't flavor them over there like that. He had to use grown-up toothpaste.

 

[Aidensmom]

They use "esther"--actually Tom's Toothpaste (they named the bird on the label Esther--no idea why). We get it from wild-oats.

What is wild-oats? A health food type store?

 

[Kermit]

Yes, it's a health food store. We also use floride-free toothpaste. I'm sure that it does prevent cavities, and I know that some people don't believe the research saying that it's harmful, but we eat very little sugar and have genetically good teeth, so that's just the way we've decided to go. I think you can actually get Tom's of Maine at Wal-Mart.

 

[mudnuri]

mine spit toothpaste out

But we as a family use tom's. We have floridated water here, by our public water supply, my girls have beautiful teeth.

When they were little, they had flouride drops prescribed from the doc, as we used spring water to mix their formula etc. they did not have flouride at all till they drank water from the tap a few years ago

Brandy

 

[lemondog]

After I caught my son, who will be 4 next month, trying to eat some of his children's toothpaste yesterday (thankfully I caught him in time), I looked up some info on the internet about flouride poisoning. A tube of flouride toothpaste, in that yummy bubble gum flavor they make for kids, can KILL a child. I looked more into it, and even found there are people that have symptoms of flouride poisoning from using flouridated water for all their life.

Just wondering, do other people use flouride toothpaste for their young children, or use something else? Do you think it is dangerous? Why? Why not?

I think I am at least going to stop buying the bubble gum flavor for him so it is not so tempting.

I was just at the dentist today getting my teeth cleaned. She said it would take TUBES and TUBES and TUBES of toothpaste to harm a child's teeth. She never said it was fatal, just that it could make their teeth have white specks. She even told me to use a tiny bit of flouride toothpaste on my 16-month olds' teeth. She said it's so little it will never do any damage to them, that is what she did with her kids and what she recommends all her patients do with their children. Of course, she tells me this about a half hour after I had bought a WHOLE TUBE of flouride-free training toothpaste to use with them.

 

[Aidensmom]

From what I read, new tubes of toothpaste that started shipping sometime this summer carry a warning label (ours have them) telling you that if "more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away." Further, I read that the American Dental Association fought tooth and nail to keep this from being on there, but the FDA overruled them. Why do the ADA and the FDA disagree? That scares me.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Dental Hygienist here. I work for my Dad, a dentist, and would like to address a few things. Children under 4 should NEVER have fluoride toothpaste b/c if they consume too much they will develope dental fluorosis. This is characterized by white spots on the teeth or in extreme cases brown spots. This occurs b/c the child ingests too much fluoride while the PERMANENT teeth are forming.


Also flouridated water is the best thing that EVER happened to the public's oral health.....there is NO WAY you can be poisoned from it. There are some lunatics out there that claim otherwise but the ADA (American Dental Association) has done NUMEROUS clinical studies and proven otherwise!

My son is 2 and I use a flouride free toothpaste 3 times per day. He gets enough flouride right now from the water and white grape juice and I don't want to risk dental fluorosis.

 

[tiggersmom2]

From what I read, new tubes of toothpaste that started shipping sometime this summer carry a warning label (ours have them) telling you that if "more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away." Further, I read that the American Dental Association fought tooth and nail to keep this from being on there, but the FDA overruled them. Why do the ADA and the FDA disagree? That scares me.

Maybe this will answer your question.

http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/positions/statements/fluoride.asp

A child could not absorb enough fluoride from toothpaste to cause a serious problem and that the excellent safety record on fluoride toothpaste argues against any unnecessary regulation.

 

[Feralpeg]

I speak for a generation where most people have fillings in every tooth in their head. I think floride is wonderful. I so wish it had been around when I was growing up. I had fillings in my baby teeth and then most of my permanent teeth. It wasn't from drinking pop or eating sweets. We didn't have those things. I had to have so much invasive dental work. As an adult, most of those huge fillings have broken down and I now have caps on most of my teeth. This in turn has lead to jaw problems.

On the otherhand, DD (17) who grew up in the floride generation has no fillings and beautiful teeth. She does drink soda on a regular basis and still has no fillings.

I've read studies on floride. These scares are not new. Several years ago, they may a really big deal about it. I've seen no evidence that proves that anyone can die from the amount of floride a person can ingest from toothpaste or floridated water. IMHO the pluses outweigh any slight danger.

 

[Aidensmom]

Maybe this will answer your question.

http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/positions/statements/fluoride.asp

A child could not absorb enough fluoride from toothpaste to cause a serious problem and that the excellent safety record on fluoride toothpaste argues against any unnecessary regulation.

What about the claim that a tube of it could kill them. I am not worried about him swallowing what he is brushing with, but I actually caught him squeezing the tube into his mouth. I went to a LOT of websites, including medical sites, which all said this was very dangerous. Is this not true?

 

[tiggersmom2]

What about the claim that a tube of it could kill them. I am not worried about him swallowing what he is brushing with, but I actually caught him squeezing the tube into his mouth. I went to a LOT of websites, including medical sites, which all said this was very dangerous. Is this not true?

Nope...not true...the worst that will happen is nausea and vomiting. A child can only absorb so much. Here is a poison control link....
http://www.georgiapoisoncenter.org/faq.html

 

[Aidensmom]

Nope...not true...the worst that will happen is nausea and vomiting. A child can only absorb so much. Here is a poison control link....
http://www.georgiapoisoncenter.org/faq.html

Thank you, that makes me feel better. Any insights on why the FDA is saying it is dangerous?

 

[tiggersmom2]

Any insights on why the FDA is saying it is dangerous?

The only thing I can think of is b/c it is clinically a drug. Acute Flouride poisoning is not a concern.....really...all you have to do is drink milk and the Fl ions will bond with the calcium ions making it inert. It is CHRONIC long term exposure that will hurt you (we are talking like eating a tube a DAY!!!)...this is unheard of and simply does not happen. Chronic exposure did happen in the 70's when dentist gave flouride pills....these are contraindicated now (don't confuse these with a supplement, totally different.) .

 

[kirbsam]

your teeth will not get flourosis(white specks) from ingesting flouride toothpaste, even a whole tube. flourosis is only caused by ingesting over- flouridated water over a long period of time. not from eating a tube of toothpaste in one sitting. you can not die from the flouride from a whole tube of toothpaste.

 

[kirbsam]

one more thing. there are two ways flouride prevents decay: topically, the flouride from toothpaste and your dentists flouride treatments prevents decay on erupted teeth. and flouridated water helps to prevent decay on nonerupted teeth. flouridated water does very little to prevent decay on teeth that are already erupted, so you should give your kids with teeth a flouridated toothpaste. just give them a small amount, and you will have no problems at all. remember flouridated toothpastes do not casue the white or brown specks on the teeth.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

We have well water so we need fluoride toothpaste. Our school does offer swish and spit every Friday but I declined. I learned as a student at the same school how to fake it. I would much rather oversee my kids doing right.

 

[kirbsam]

again water and flouride toothpaste do two different things. they are both needed. and all water has some flouride in it naturally. well water is not necessarily flouride free. it must be tested, otherwise your kids should have supplements. florudie toothpaste does not help the teeth that have not erupted into the mouth. only flouridated water does that.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Our water was tested when we purchased the house and the tests came back with minimal traces of fluoride. My parents live next door so I had already suspected that, so we started on supplements when we(my brothers and I) were younger and now my kids do too. Every house we have lived in with our kids has been well water so we are very aware of the fluoride levels, having water tests every few years. I do think it is a good thing to have the school do swish and spit though. I guess it's better than nothing. The previous town we lived in didn't offer anything.
I have found though that a lot of schools don't have dentists come to the schools anymore and talk about dental hygiene. I remember as a kid a dentist coming every year to show how to brush, the right amount of paste, and so on.

 

[kirbsam]

i had thought from your original post that your kids didnt take supplements. i am happy that they are getting supplements. hope i didnt offend you, you sound very knowledgable.