Purified Nursery Water (With Added Fluoride)

Hi there,

There's a lot of research lately that indicates that ingestion of fluoride by infants can be harmful, and is at the very least unnecessary. Please check it out before giving your baby fluoride at all! Here's one source, but there are also many others: http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/infant/

J.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi B.!
Not to scare you but I have often heard it's dangerous to ingest fluoride in large amounts. In addition to this, if children have too much of it, their adult teeth will have white spots on them. Of course, I am sure the nursery water is not in dangerous levels, but I personally don't take any chances.
I have used filtered or spring water for my 2 children with no problems. My 4 y.o. daughter still uses fluoride free toothpaste and her teeth are fine. I think being diligent about getting to the dentist is more important and you could even start taking your daughter in this year or next to get her comfortable with the dentist.
Anyway, our pediatrician has always told us the nursery water is unnecessary and a waste of money in areas where there is fluoride in the water already.
Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

our doc suggested only 6-8 oz of fl water per day (b/c Pasco doesn't add fluoride)--the rest we do filtered water. Unless you give a fl vitamin, I would think it would be for many years to make sure they have strong teeth...

I agree with the moms about fluoride. It is a chemical and infants or toddlers do not need it. Actually, if you go on the American Dental Association website they talk about how they strongly advise not to expose fluoride to young children. I think they only advertise that baby water with added fluoride because it makes them money even at the expense of our little ones.

I'm a dental hygienist and I just give my kids purified water. They get tap water at friends' houses and at restaraunts and in anything made with water. That's pleanty of fluoride if you ask me.

I'm all for fluoride, but topical is the way to go. There's a fluoride varnish that's safe for 1yr olds b/c you pee out the extra.

The reccomendations for kids are really small. They have stopped reccomending fluoride supplements b/c of cases of fluorosis. They say even fluorosis teeth are stronger, but they're so ugly that every patient I've had wants to fix it. Cosmetics are important too.

I've heard bad things about the nursrey water although it sounds great, right! You're a good mom.

Talk to your pediatrician. With our daughter I kept her on Nursery water for quite a while (at age two you can begin using floride toothpaste, and the nursery water is no longer necessary). However, what we found out the second time around, with my son is that our water quality is actually excellent and we took him off of the nursery water around 8 months old and just use regular old tap water. As a matter of fact, the whole family now has started drinking tap water as opposed to the hundreds of dollars we were spending on bottled water that is actually LESS clean than our tap water.

BTW - Never EVER use distilled water!!!! Also, Spring water is not appropriate because it may not be flouridated at all (although we use is for the occassional bottle on the road because of convenience) and often has a MUCH lower quality control than city water (this is NOT true if you are on Well water at which time you should always use bottled water). There is no FDA regulation of the contents of bottled water or spring water.

In addition, we all drink flouride, the amount contained in our water will not hurt our children's teeth now or long term. Your Pediatrician and your pediatric dentist are your best resources. I caution people to beware of some of the advice you recieve from fellow parents, colleagues and family members, and the media.

I agree with Vanessa C and Jennifer L. My daughter has done very well with filtered water and no supplemental fluoride.

I never gave either one of my children floride. I always used purified water. At a young age I gave them floride suplements, my pediatrician recomended it. However I also brushed as soon as they had one tooth, and encouraged mouth wash from before I can remember. If you read all the bottles though it says do not swallow, because flouride can be harmful if swallowed. Also if you are using tap water you may be getting more than just flouride.

Ask your pediatritian. Our pediatric dentist says that unless you're using TAP WATER, continue the "Nursery Water". My 34 mo son just had dental work done Friday At All Childrens under full anesthesia to have 9 cavities treated; 7 of which had crowns.

We never used pediatric nursery water... and he was breastfed for 19 months!

I have to agree with the moms that say NOT to give water with any flouride at all. Flouride is a very toxic chemical in quantities that are out of acceptable range and if it were me, I would not be leaving it up to the manufacturer of that 'Nursery Water' to get it right. With all the manufacturing errors and human errors possible in the world today, I would not trust that there isn't too much. My ped says it is not necessary anyway, as well as my pediatric dentist. Flourside toothpaste is applied to the teeth and spit out, not ingested into the body like this flouride water.

If it were me, I would not give it to my child at any age....

My son was breastfed, but on the rare occasion he had formula as a newborn, we mixed it with filtered water. Then when he was older, we gave him filtered water to drink. Never used the other stuff. So I'd say it's safe.

S.

I used regular filtered water with both my boys, never used any special nursery water at all. My 4yr old had one surface cavity but this was due to not flossing enough between his very closely spaced teeth. My 2.5 yr old had no cavities at all at his first check up. I would probably suggest calling your ped and asking what they recommend.