PSA: Fluoride and formula

julia0402

There was a great article about this in my JADA (J. American Dental Assn) this month.  I've been waiting for a study like this to come out!

The gist of it was that the water you use to reconstitute powdered formula should be between 0.4 and 0.7 ppm.  Below that, and your child won't get enough fluoride to protect their teeth.  Above that, and they are at risk for fluorosis (mottled teeth-- a cosmetic thing).  You can find what ppm your water has through your town... I found mine online.  Most bottled water has no fluoride.

If you use RTF only, your baby is probably not getting enough fluoride and you should talk to your pedi about a supplement.

I have a table of the ppm fluoride in each brand of formula; if you want to know yours, ask me and I will look it up for you.  (FWIW, Similac Advance powdered = 0.05; Enfamil Lipil = 0.06)

YWIA!!

quickchick

oh wow how about similac isomil advanced???tia

 

julia0402

quickchick:

oh wow how about similac isomil advanced???tia

 

0.18 for the powdered; 0.13 for RTF

VAannie

I wonder why they don't add fluoride to RTF...

Thanks for the info!   

phishphood

Thank you Julia!  This is great info.

ETA: Is the flouride content in Similac Advance w/ EarlyShield the same as the Similac Advance?

ErinBarry

How about Alimentum RTF?  Thanks!

labooshki

We have the supplement but I always forget to give it to him

julia0402

phish-- there's nothing listed for EarlyShield, but good question-- we use that too.  I assume so?

ErinBarry:

How about Alimentum RTF?  Thanks!

It's not listed!    But the powdered is 0.27.  They did also say that any RTF would not have enough fluoride (would be under 0.4ppm).

Mando91

2 questions:

1. what is RTF?

2. what if you use the supplement?

julia0402

Mando91:

2 questions:

1. what is RTF? -- ready to feed

2. what if you use the supplement?-- I'm not sure what you mean?  Do you mean what happens if you use the supplement and you are already giving enough fluoride with your town's fluoride content?  If you are doing that you should talk to your pedi about stopping the supplement.

4Speedy

If you use powdered formula you can mix it with nursery water, which has flouride added.  I notice Kroger is making a geberic brand of nursery water so it's not that expensive any more.  But getting flouride from formula is not the ideal, anyway, so that's only a half-assed solution.  My DS get's flouride drops because we have well water.  It says all over the package inserts from the manufacturer that the drops should not be taken within 2 hours of drinking any milk product because the calcium interferes with the absorbtion of flouride.