Green Daily

Here's something that you may get a 100 different answers on if you ask 100 different health care providers ...Does my baby need fluoride?

Fluoride is often added to municipal tap water to reduce tooth decay, although according to the Environmental Working Group, ingesting fluoride has little effect and is most effective when applied directly as a toothpaste or mouthwash. There are studies showing health hazards from ingesting fluoride that you can read about here.

So how about babies? And what about all of that fluoridated nursery water you see in the store? For infant feeding, breastfeeding is best of course, and if you are exclusively breastfeeding, no need to worry about fluoride either way. If you need to supplement or bottle feed with formula, however, according to the American Dental Association, make sure you make the formula with non-fluoridated water.

For more information on this advice, and more on one effect of over fluoridation called enamel fluorosis, see a statement from the ADA here. Some more tips on avoiding fluoride for infants:

• Avoid those fluoridated nursery waters for making formula.
  
• Call your municipality to see if your tap water is fluoridated. If it is, you may want to consider using a bottled, non-fluoridated water for formula.
• Don't rely on pitcher or refrigerator filters to remove fluoride; most don't.

For more on keeping baby's environment safe and green, see our GreenBaby Guide.