fluoridated water
okay. so food i know. but, apparently, drink... not so much.
at 22 months, i can count on my two hands how many times isaac's had juice. (i think that's about to change fast, though! we gave him some vitamin-C packed mango/orange/banana juice from Trader Joe's to help his cold this weekend, and calling it a "smoothie" did not prevent an impassioned plea for "juuuicce!" this morning.) he's a water and milk drinker, that kid. and some herbal tea every once and a while.
with all the water our family drinks, we tend to buy bottled. usually Poland Spring. but i've been feeling pretty guilty about wasting all that packaging, especially given NYC's reputation for great tap water (which is fluoridated). well, as it turns out, it may be a good thing we've been giving isaac bottled water since it usually does NOT contain (much) fluoride.
this weekend, i came across an article called Are We Poisoning Our Babies and Children With Fluoride. i'm not one for fear tactics, so the title is a little much, but it's really interesting. the best part is this video.
clear and with data. very compelling. at least enough to do more research and talk to my pediatrician. if you want to do more research, too, here are some leads:
http://fluoridealert.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoridation
http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/feeding/fluoride.html
if you decide to avoid your town/city's fluoridated tap water (figure out if your tap is fluoridated here), consider a water cooler instead of individual bottles to minimize packaging waste or, even better, a water filter that specifically filters fluoride. i haven't done enough research to recommend one yet, but this article--How to Remove Fluoride from Drinking Water--is a start. a google search for "water filter fluoride" brought up a bunch of stuff, too.
-S
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