Sweetened Toothpaste

Tonight when I finished brushing my 2-year old son's teeth in the usual way, he wasn't quite ready to quit.

"More toothpaste," he said.

Or Baby Tooth and Gum Cleanser, as the package calls it. His request came as a surprise, so I tasted the stuff. Big shocker: it tasted like candy. For some reason this reminded me of a passage from The Taste of America, by John and Karen Hess:

If she is a typical American... her very first mouthful of nourishment was a synthetic, sweetened bottle formula; she was weaned on starchy baby foods loaded with sugar and monosodium glutamate, and she grew up on soda pop, candy, corn flakes, ketchup-doused hamburgers, and instant coffee.

And later:

The switch from breast feeding to sugared formulas is known to have affected babies' teeth and to have promoted obesity; it is at least possible it has harmed the palate... There is no question, however, about their having been badly conditioned.

The kiddie toothpaste package doesn't list ingredients or nutrition information, aside from noting that it contains no flouride or saccharin. It doesn't say what is in there, but says that it is "completely safe if swallowed." For more information, you can go to http://www.oralb.com/products/toothpasterinse/. But you won't find ingredients listed there either.

Not being one to spread unsubstantiated rumors, let's assume the stuff is in fact harmless from a nutritional perspective. There's still the question of what it might do to his taste buds. Given the national epidemic of junk food and obesity, an early predisposition in favor of sweetened flavors might not be a good thing to encourage.

Comments

[Dr. Biggles]

Yeah man, that's some SWEET stuff. Which is why we use the Tom's Natural kids toofpaste. GACK.

Biggles

[Kiki]

Even though I grew up and still am a Colgate user, I buy Crest for Kids for our son because Colgate doesn't make a non-candy version of Kids toothpaste. It wasn't only an adult decision, he strangely enough didn't like the candied toothpaste.

[los angeles porcelain veneers]

I want to try this sweetened toothpaste sounds interesting let me see how it really works for me.

florence