I've neglected the blog lately. Not that I intended to, I just haven't had much to say. So, since nothing greatly insightful is rolling around in my head at the moment I figured I'd give you a homemade recipe for toothpaste. Yes, toothpaste. First, I'll give you a tiny piece of the story that pushed us to using homemade toothpaste. Our third daughter went for her first dental exam when she was 4-5. The dentist called me back and said "Mom, she has 3 cavities." Feeling like a bad mom we went home determined to do better. We did better brushing and flossing. We got 1 of the cavities filled and had appointments to fill the next 2. We upped our fluoride by using fluoride rinse after brushing with fluoride toothpaste. In 6 months we went back for another check up. Imagine my horror when the dentist says "Mom, we have 6 cavities now." Daughter #1 has had a few cavities (3 maybe?) and Daughter #2 has had no cavities. They all have the same brushing routine. I could not understand how it was so bad. I immediately went home and started doing research as to what I could do to help her. I could find nothing good about fluoride really. Yeah, I tend to lean toward the skeptical side. I don't trust doctors 100%, I don't trust everything told to me via the medical or dental professionals. There ARE great doctors and dentists out there, but honestly when I ask a question to 5 doctors or dentists and I get the exact same response from each I truly believe they are just parroting statements to me that were parroted to them by their teachers (you know, parrots repeat things, haha!) So, when all I get is "MORE FLUORIDE", I immediately start wondering WHY? And if the only response I get from them is that it strengthens teeth and helps fight cavities without an intellectual answer as to how I really start trying to figure out the "other side" to the topic in question and in this case the topic in question was fluoride. I found that fluoride when ingested actually weakens bones. Teeth are bones. Kids ingest fluoride more so than adults. I found the health effects of fluoride are none that are welcome in my home. Fluoride is toxic. It is put in our water system in bags labeled as toxic. WHY bring it anywhere near us?
Anyway, mini-rant over. We switched to fluoride free toothpaste but could never find one that worked for 2 reasons: 1) I could not for the life of me find one that all kids agreed on the taste of. 2) Most contain glycerin which is not good if you are trying to heal cavities (more on that later IF I can figure it out for myself first!). So I made my own. I tried multiple recipes and then just made one that fits us. Homemade Toothpaste 2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil (get the good kind: raw, unrefined coconut oil. we use it for EVERYTHING) 1-2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda 1-2 Teaspoons of Xylitol*** a pinch of sea salt (no more than a small pinch, it makes it too salty. can be omitted if you don't want it) Peppermint Oil to taste mix it all up in a glass bowl and use as you would regular toothpaste. It won't foam up though. ***xylitol is a natural sweetener. I've not used it until recently. Our son was showing signs of decay on his teeth so after tons of research I decided to try this. Cavities are formed because of a bacteria called mutans streptococci and the Xylitol has the ability to naturally combat the bacteria. His decay seems to have stopped since switching over to this. It almost seems to be improving. I found ours at a health food store. Kinda pricy, but it is the only thing we use it for so it is lasting a long time. There are many recipes out there, feel free to research it and find one that works for you if you don't like this one. Many people add different things like GSE (grapefruit seed extract) to fight germs or calcium to strengthen teeth. Our daughter's story has a happy ending. We filled her cavities, one had to have a crown unfortunately. BUT, since using our homemade toothpaste for over a year now she has had NO NEW CAVITIES!!! Neither has our older daughter. Our teeth can be healthy without the chemicals in toothpaste!! Maybe we're a weird family. I'll take weird and healthy any day!
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AuthorsThoughts and ideas inspired by the Holy Spirit, delivered to you courtesy of Chris or Michelle Cooper. We hope you enjoy our posts and would love to hear your feedback! Archives
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