Wide Variations of Fluoride Supply to Infants and Their Effect

Abstract
Infant feeding with water-diluted cow’s milk or, still more, dry-milk formulas supplies many times greater fluoride doses than breast-feeding, already with low water fluoride content. An investigation of 260 schoolchildren in Uppsala (1.2 ppm F in the drinking water) showed only an insignificant trend towards increased enamel mottling in typically formula-fed children, compared to breast-fed children. Among 25 children in the small community Billesholm (5.5 ppm F in the drinking water) the same trend was only slightly stronger. No difference in caries rate was found between breast-fed and bottle-fed children in any of these communities. No health hazard seems to be involved in any of these fluoride doses, but the need to consider all the factors that can be changed when introducing new nutritional and therapeutic methods is pointed out.