Fluoride Drops

My son takes fluoride drops because our towns water supply does not contain fluoride. He loves his drops because they are yummy peach-flavoured. He calls it "med-sin", and is excited to brush his teeth because he knows he gets the it afterwards.
If your childs doctor gave her a prescription for fluoride, its because it is assumed that your well water does not contain it. You can have the town come check your well to see if it contains naturally occurring fluoride, in which case your daughter shouldn't need to take the drops. Once your child is old enough to use regular toothpaste, which usually contains fluoride, she will no longer need to take the supplemental drops.
The purpose of fluoride is to prevent cavities and strengthen the teeth. You asked if it is necessary, and I would say yes.

My daughter takes flouride as well because our water does not contain it. She takes the drops, and we worked it into our bed routine- she loves taking it! When I talked to my dentist about the struggles we were having around consistently brushing her teeth (it was literally a battle at times), she recommended trying to get the back teeth, or letting my daughter do it (something is better than nothing), but also emphasized that the flouride drops are very important and will help in terms of reducing the likelihood of cavaties. Personally, I'd much rather use a nightly dropper than sit with my two-year-old while she gets a filling!

We also have well water, but we do the little purple chewable flouride pills. We've done it forever, and the kids have great teeth, so we go with it. I don't know if it's strictly necessary, now that you ask.

I would check with your pediatrician and/or pediatric dentist (your pediatrician can recommend a pediatric dentist, if you don't have one).

We have well water as well and our pediatrician prescribed Flouride pills for our daughter - she's 2.5 yo and has been taking them since she was 1. Not sure how much longer she'll take them, she goes back to the doctor this summer - but he started her on the Flouride drops prior to the pill and that was before we bought our home and at that time we were on town water....
Hope this helps - good luck!

yes, and yes. Rcommended by pedi and dentist. Kids love it, easy.

If you have well water, your little one needs fluoride. I grew up on town water that had fluoride added. You can buy bottled water with fluoride added, but it's harder to know if she's getting enough or too much. My kids (2 and 4) did drops when they were babies and are now doing chewable tablets.

Check with your pedi-- one kind of drop was recalled some time ago-- I think they were combo vitamin and fluoride drops and provide ineffective if taken together so they reissued with just the fluoride. And make sure you read the directions carefully-- fluoride absorbs better if not taken with dairy products. My instructions said to take 2-3 hours before or after milk, which is dang near impossible with a baby!

When we switched to chewables (around age 2) my dentist suggested taking at night, after brushing teeth, as the fluoride has a better chance of sinking into the teeth. The kids LOVE it, but avoid letting them drink water for an hour after eating the tablets because it washes it away.

I would go with what your pediatrician says. We have been giving our daughter fluoride as our water does not include it.

I was just at the dentist asking this same question. We have well water that tested 0 for fluoride. Our pedi prescribed the fluoride drops and my twin girls love them. I put the required amount right onto their toothbrushes. It is okay to also use the fluoride free toothpaste to get your child familiar with brushing. We do both. The dentist said to switch to using regular toothpaste when the girls were old enough to spit.
The dentist said the reason for the ingested fluoride is to help the little buds of teeth and enamel that are forming and growing under the gums, hence the point of getting the fluoride into their system. The whole point of brushing is to make sure you keep the current teeth clean.
It is very necessary to use fluoride drops of some sort if there is no traces of it in your well water.