babies and floride

JessMitch · #1 February 5th, 2011, 03:03 PM

My mom mentioned something about floride in our tape water and how the baby shouldn't have it. so we bought some jugs of water and i just noticed it says it has floride in it...?!?!?

Is it bad for babies to have floride? These jugs say for newborns and toddlers soooo wth?! why would they make that if they shouldn't have it? Does anyone know?

JustLiz · #2 February 6th, 2011, 04:37 PM

They have been adding floride to the tap water for 40 years, which means all of us drank it and were fine. It's good for preventing cavities (not really a concern for a newborn!). There has been some recent controversy about whether the levels are too high, but as far as I know the side effect of that is just causing some brownish discoloration of the teeth if the levels are super high. Also not the biggest issue for a newborn. I wouldn't worry.

MommaLee · #3 February 7th, 2011, 07:24 AM

I do not agree with adding flouride to a newborn/infants water. We do not drink straight tap water, nor do we give it to our daughter unless she drinks the water while taking a bath which she has done. Personally, I would suggest buying water like Ozarka, Aquafina, Fiji, etc... (I don't advocate for Dasani because they add sodium to their water). I know it is going to be more expensive doing so but it all depends on what you can afford and want to do.

There is no reason to add it flouride to the water, especially at that age...however, I do agree with Liz that there is probably no harm.

JessMitch · #4 February 7th, 2011, 01:55 PM

Thanks for the tips! I just wanted to add that i spoke to Mack's pedi who said they would rather she not have flouride before she is 6 months old... so we're gonna ditch those jugs and we got some poland springs water.