Toothpastes for little ones? Fluoride?

[mommy2caroline]

I am wondering if anyone has a good toothpaste suggestion...

We have been using Weleda Children's Tooth Gel (http://usa.weleda.com/our-products/s...tooth-gel.aspx), which is free of fluoride. It has been great except that it is pricy, and it come sin a metal tube whech always develops cracks and then the stuff oozes out everywhere and wastes it, gets everything all gunky... I have used it on my almost five year old since we started using toothpaste when she was about 12 months old, and her teeth are great, no cavities... for her, I am considering whether I need to start her on fluoride toothpaste soon and on fluoride treatments at the dentist. I have heard conflicting info both ways and just want to do what is best for her teeth. If they are baby teeth, do they really need fluoride? Wouldn't it make more sense to use fluoride on the permanent teeth since they are the ones that'll be around for her whole life?

Anyway, I recently bought a tube of Jason brand toothpaste for the kids (http://www.amazon.com/Jason-Natural-...JG6QWU)because of the above mentioned issues with the Weleda brand. The Jason brand is also fluoride-free and is much cheaper per ounce, and it comes in a plastic tube. But it contains something called sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, which sounds awfully close to sodium lauryl sulfate... and this toothpaste does foam, so some ingredient is causing that, whereas the Weleda type does not foam. I bought both these brands at our health foods store, but I know that doesn't guarantee that they are known to be safe... they also sell Tom's of Maine, which contains SLS.

Does anyone know if these ingredients have any known concerns or have a toothpaste brand to recommend, or any insight on the fluoride issue?? Thanks!!

[khanni]

We use Xyliwhite, which is not specifically a kids' toothpaste, but my kids like it. Here are the ingredients:

Functional Ingredients: Xylitol (25%), Papain (whitening). Other Ingredients: Water, Hydrated Silica, Sorbitol, Glycerin, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Carrageenan Gum (Chondrus crispus), Cassia Oil (Cinnamomum cassia) (Leaf), Tea Tree Oil (Melaleuca alternifolia) (Leaf), and Potassium Sorbate. Contains no: Fluoride.

So, it doesn't have sodium lauroyl sarcosinate (not that I know what that does or what it is).

[Everrgreen]

I've been using Tom's fluoride-free for children for my 12 month old (just an itty bitty dab). What's wrong with sodium lauryl sulfate?

[LianneM]

We use the Weleda you posted but get it from Frontier for about half the cost. We've had it crack once and ooze out, after letting DS (5) do it himself, so it's a grownup job now and we are careful to squeeze/flatten from the bottom.

[Raene]

Originally Posted by Gillian28

I've been using Tom's fluoride-free for children for my 12 month old (just an itty bitty dab). What's wrong with sodium lauryl sulfate?

It's supposedly cancer causing.

[Equuskia]

Originally Posted by Gillian28

I've been using Tom's fluoride-free for children for my 12 month old (just an itty bitty dab). What's wrong with sodium lauryl sulfate?

It can also irritate the gums. When I used Burt's bees toothpaste, my gums never bled. If I use Aquafresh or any other like that containing SLS, my gums will bleed slightly almost everyday.

[insahmniak]

We tried a bunch of different ones but always ended up finding something nasty in them. We now use plain old water. Works well. I've heard from dentists that it's the brushing that is doing the work. Not the paste. Well, unless you're into the fluoride thing, which we're not. Water is inexpensive, safe, and has no added manufacturing, packaging or interstate transport footprint. Hard to beat that.

[boheime]

We use Tom's fluoride free silly strawberry. We tried Jasons and the kids complained it was too sweet and refused to use it again. I just ordered some Spry (has xylitol in it) so we can try it.

[haleyelianasmom]

when my daughter was very young, we just brushed her teeth with xylitol (granules) on her toothbrush. A dentist suggested that to us and I felt good using it because it didn't have any weird extras in there (plus she loved it). I might be a bad person for suggestions, though, because our daughter also had several cavities by the time she was two. I honestly think it was just that she was somehow infected with s. mutans and not a whole lot could have stopped it (neither I nor dh ever had issues like that as children and we were always cautious about dd's teeth and what she ate). Then we did add some fluoride as she got older and i really go back and forth with fluoride, so I mostly just use it occasionally. Right now she generally uses epic xylitol toothpaste (we also use their gum. i have an awesome coupon code somewhere. Let me know if you want it and I'll search for it). We also used xyliwhite cinnamon toothpaste, but now she isn't as interested in the flavor and it sometimes makes her skin turn red when she uses it.

We just recently started using oravive with novamin which supposedly helps rebuild enamel and fight cavities. It is minty, even the citrus mint, but dd likes it. This is fluoride-free.

As for fluoridated toothpaste... When we were using it, we were using natural dentist. We had some grape fluoride with xylitol toothpaste, but I can't remember the name. We tried to be cautious that dd wasn't swallowing it (When she was younger, we'd wipe it off her teeth with a washcloth and have her rinse after brushing a very small amount on).

Another idea for when you are out is the spiffies toothwipes which contain xylitol.

[khanni]

Originally Posted by haleyelianasmom

We also used xyliwhite cinnamon toothpaste, but now she isn't as interested in the flavor and it sometimes makes her skin turn red when she uses it.

This happens to my son (almost 2) when we use the cinnafresh flavor of the Xyliwhite. But, I tried the mint one, and he was fine. My daughter likes the cinnafresh, not mint, and she has not had any problem with the skin turning red. Anyway, I think it's the cinnamon oil that's causing the red skin since it didn't happen with the mint flavor.

[mommy2caroline]

Thanks for the ideas, everyone! The price on Amazon on that Xyliwhite sure looks good to me!

[Maadi]

Hi,
What type of food you are giving to your baby, Some foods and beverages contain fluoride, Fluoride is also added to some toothpaste. I am Regularly using Oravive toothpaste, You must try to find out the online latest baby toothpaste on different search engines like Google or Yahoo. I got my one for you ababydirectory.com, which may help you out to solve your query.

[Anastasiya]

We use Tom's fluoride free AND sodium lauryl sulfate free (SLS free).

It has in interestingly super sweet taste - like the kind of sweet you can't get out of your mouth for some time, therefore DH and I won't use it. I believe it has licorice root or something in it to help it foam up a bit - maybe that's causing the super sweet taste?

Anyway, we call it "sweet mint" and the kids think it's great.

Also a fan of using just plain water.