Mom Looking for Holistic or Natural Alternative for Fluoride Perscription

Theres no reason to give your child fluoride before they are ready for toothpaste. Nor do you need to give your child Trivisol, as someone else suggested! As long as you are eating a balanced and healthy diet while breastfeeding, and if your child is eating a balanced diet (im not sure if he/she is old enough for solids yet), no need to supplement with anything. People are OBSESSED with supplements, but they wouldnt need them if they just ate healthy to begin with!

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We have well water. My son (4) chews (tiny) white fluoride tabs and my daughter (2) takes non-color drops. My pediatrician switched us from the combo vitamin/fluoride drops because they were recalled. Find out more-- I think it was that certain vitamins were in higher doses and the fluoride was rendered ineffective when taken with others.

Note that on both the drops and chews, there are specific usage instructions-- for example, trying to keep the substance on the teeth as long as possible (not rinsing/drinking afterward) to help the fluoride "sink in"; and try not ingest calcium two hours before or after, since it can interfere with the absorption of the fluoride. I don't know any toddler that goes 4 hours without milk, so it's a little ridiculous and I hope they are getting as much from their diet as possible.

I know that you can get fluoride from eating fish. Check out this website as well:
http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/2005/12/infant-foods-...

good luck!

Hi T.,

Here's what I wrote to another mother a while back:

We have a well without fluoride in the water. I did as my child's pediatrician advised - fluoride prescription. Now my son's permanent teeth are discolored due to the fluoride supplementation. The prescribed amount was obviously too much. :(

I didn't give my younger son so much supplementation. His permanent teeth are yet to come in so I don't know how they fared.

Our dentist said that just using a fluoride toothpaste will give the supplementation without the expense of buying the tablets since children are apt to swallow a little bit of the toothpaste. Seems brilliant to me. I wish I asked our dentist that years ago!

I am definitely against daily prescription supplementation.

So, T., you could choose your favorite fluoridated toothpaste. In our family, we add baking soda to our favorite ingredient toothpaste. It didn't seem to do the job. My grandmother used baking soda only. Her dentist had to pull all of her teeth. They were beautiful but she had gingivitis. It makes me wonder what caused that. Perhaps a poor diet.

I don't know the answer to the fluoride debate.

: ) Maureen

If you are breastfeeding isn't yor child on the trivisol drops w/ fluoride? Have you ever tasted those drops they are nasty I don't think they put extra stuff in those they are that yucky brown color because of the vitamins that are in them. If it is just fluoride when I had my youngest 7 yrs ago his fluoride drops were that milky color like the dye free motrin and tylenol that they make so ask your doc for dye free ones.

Hi T.,

ask your dentist about using GelKam. It is a high-dose flouride toothpaste that is sold over the counter (but is usually kept behind the pharmacy counter). Instead of using it as a toothpaste, we rub a tiny amount on the teeth just before bed--it adheres directly to the tooth and hardens cavities--it does not enter the body's system like tablets or water does. It does tend to turn cavities a light brown color.

It is a clear gel with no dye.

Hello T.. We were in the same situation that you are in breastfeeding and the dr. put us on Fluoride drops. At that time I didn't want to give my son extra stuff that he didn't need so I thought I would ask the person who would know the best and actual dentist. My dentist strongly adviced against giving him flouride. She had mentioned that if they get to much fluoride it can be harmful and they are too young to acutally need it at this point. So we opted not to give him any fluoride and when he turned a year we used Nursery water (has fluoride) just so he would have a little in his system but it was a little. I hope this helps please let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi T.,

You can always ask your pharmacists and they can often find dye-free alternatives. My 6-year old daughter becomes hyperactive and aggressive and generally out of control of herself if she has Yellow 5 and Red 40, specifically. I just learned that Red 40 is banned in the UK. Bad stuff! Fortunately, more and more dye-free alternatives are becoming available.

Dye is scary, but also check this out:
http://www.grotondentalwellness.com/Dental_Spa/Childrens_...

First, there is no guarantee flouride will help. I had flouride tablets and rinse every day for my whole childhood and still had TEN cavities in my teeth.

Secondly, you can over-flouridate and cause even worse damage than cavities.

Thirdly, flouride is an industrial waste product. We are actually trying desperately to find a way to afford non-flouridated water for our son.
http://westonaprice.org/envtoxins/fluoridationfraud.html

Check out that link for starters. Just wanted to give you information to make an informed decision!

Hi T.,

we live in Austria right now, where they have fluoride supplements without food dye.

I fed those to my son during his second year. I do not believe very much in supplementing isolated elements, but my then pediatrician persuaded me with a study showing a stronger effect on tooth health of these tablets than teeth brushing... I am not supplementing with my daughter, though. She is one year. Our new pediatrician cited other studies that may persuade one that fluoride in the toot paste is more effective than tablets chewed.

Ok, now i plan to switch from our "all-natural" Weleda tooth paste to "Elmex for kids" which contains fuoride. But i am not stressed about it. My new pediatrician is an old ex-hospital pediatrician, with good grounds in "classical" and "complementary" approaches, and he was very laid back about giving fluoride at all. My own atitude is also that it probably won't make a lot of difference. The more important factor to me seems healthy food -- so no isolated sugars, whole-grains, freshly prepared, diverse.

If i feel under too much pressure of "getting it right" with my kids, i try to remember under what varying conditions children can thrive. A book that helps with that is "Our babies, ourselves" by Meredith Small.

Good luck!
D.

I never gave my kids floride, like the doctor suggested and they do not have any cavities at age 20, 18, 16, and 12. I had a friend that gave her infant the prescription and all the baby did was throw up all the time. He stopped when she stopped the floride. I believe it is toxic to their systems. The important thing is that they brush well, or you brush their teeth at night while they are young. Play dentist with them, like you would play doctor and it will be fun. Keep a good diet of good calcium rich foods too.
S.

I am surprised that you are looking for something 'natural' or 'holistic' and you are concerned about dyes yet you do not question giving fluoride to children. Please don't be offended, I just hope you know exactly what fluoride is/does before putting it in your child's body. Here are some links that should help you make an informed decision.

http://www.fluoridealert.org/
http://www.holisticmed.com/fluoride/
http://www.mercola.com/article/links/fluoride_links.htm
http://www.all-natural.com/fleffect.html
http://www.doctorspiller.com/fluoride.htm