Took little miss G to the dentists yesterday for a routine checkup, after checking her the dentist started to put something on her teeth, when asked she said it was flouride and all kids had it.
It should have been her first day at school this morning but she’s spent all night and this am being sick. We phoned the dentist this morning who said sickness isn’t listed as a side effect of the fluoride so it must be a bug.
Five mins on Google shows lots of negative things about fluoride so should a 4 1/2 year old be given it, should I have been asked first and is it likely this is what’s made her sick?
Or should I just mtfu and stop worrying?

MTFU and stop worrying.

Bit off medicating your daughter without your consent though.

Should definitely have asked first, but it is very common (especially in deprived areas at least in Scotland) and generally a good idea.

Five mins on Google shows lots of negative things about fluoride

Flouride has been a popular health scare story/government conspiracy for many decades, I’m sure the internet is awash with it.

I doubt she ingested any more than with normal teeth brushing.. toothpaste is full of flouride as is your drinking water probably.

why is it a popular health scare story?

Dunno, I seem to remember hearing about in historical contexts.

Thanks all, I’m off to mtfu now (and more importantly tell mrs mikeG to wtfu!) little miss G is now feeling better and has gone to the afternoon session at school

why is it a popular health scare story?

There was a move a while ago to add flouride to ALL drinking water. As per usual, the eco-hippy sandal-wearing Guardian readers got hold of it and heralded it as the first signs of the Rapture or Armageddon or something. As it is, flouridisation of tap water only occurs at the request of local health authorities under the Water Act 2003 – if a request is made, the utility compnay is duty bound to comply. United Utilities and Severn Trent are among the utility compnaies who do flouridate the water supply in England.

Toothpaste has been full of the stuff anyway for donkey’s years and nobody died of toothpaste poisoning. Your dentist should have asked for your consent first though.

why is it a popular health scare story?

Because like the NHS/socialised healthcare it is seen by some as a communist plot.

“Water fluoridation has frequently been the subject of conspiracy theories. During the “Red Scare” in the United States during the late 1940s and 1950s, and to a lesser extent in the 1960s, activists on the far right of American politics routinely asserted that fluoridation was part of a far-reaching plot to impose a socialist or communist regime. They also opposed other public health programs, notably mass vaccination and mental health services. Their views were influenced by opposition to a number of major social and political changes that had happened in recent years: the growth of internationalism, particularly the UN and its programs; the introduction of social welfare provisions, particularly the various programs established by the New Deal; and government efforts to reduce perceived inequalities in the social structure of the United States.”

From 1955 :

I was thinking more about excessive amounts of fluoride in adult toothpaste causing problems with children’s teeth, rather than political babble.

I was referring to what ernie linked to (but I was too lazy to google) – flouride in water.

You do need to go easy on the flouride for kids toothpaste though, because they end up swallowing it and it ends up in their growing bones I think with negative consequences.

*Adds johnellison to “very unlikely to agree with” list

my kid eats toothpaste and uses the wrong end of the toothbrush. I don’t think he’s old enough for adult stuff yet.