Too much fluoride can damage teeth. The amount in most water is very small and it helps tooth enamel resist acids better, including those made by the bacteria in your mouth. Excessive fluoride consumption in adolescence causes fluorosis. Mild forms are just cosmetic, severe forms damage teeth development but normal water with fluoride won’t get there.
Fluoride is added to water to encourage remineralization in the enamel of human teeth. The amount is tiny, so it’s safe even to prepare food/formula or to drink municipal water supplies for even the youngest babies.
It’s also used in some dental products and other products in much higher concentration. These are safe when used as directed, but you should avoid, for example, swallowing the fluoride treatment at the dentist office. The dentist or hygienist will tell you not to swallow it, and will watch to make sure you spit it out, so this should not be a problem.
Dose makes the poison. Our bodies can flush out a small amount of fluoride with no harm, and it reinforces our teeth on top of being antimicrobial.
Similarly a lot of water sources have chlorine added to it as an antimicrobial, which is also a nasty poison in a high enough dose, but its in such a small concentration we don’t even notice.
Please dont Give your baby water regardless of if it has fluoride in it or not. Water will call babies to drown on the inside as there small body can only take so much fluid before it dilutes there electrolytes (especially sodium) to the point of serious injury (search hyponatremia seizures) and/or death. Milk is safe because it has electrolytes dissolved in it so it won’t dilute the blood when absorbed
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