Ah arse.....DD may have eaten almost a full tube of children's toothpaste (1000 ppm fluoride). What do I need to do?

[LackaDAISYcal]

Is this dangerous?
Will it mean she has brown teeth from fluoridosis (sp)?
Will it make her ill?

I can't believe she has done this.....she has at least one incident a week of eating something she shouldn't and only two weeks ago we had her at A&E after she swallowed some water I'd been soaking clothes in with Vanish added....two days later she stuck a bead up her nose. Yesterday she licked a snail.....

My house is already like Fort Knox and I'm sure A&E/NHS Direct will be alerting SS if I have to call then again.

Any advice gratefully received.

I don't think its dangerous, honest.

Hope she grows out of this habit soon!

What about phoning the company that makes it or looking on their website? My sister is a pharmacitical chemist, I will e-mail her. What toothpaste is it and did she swallow all of it?

Hi - I don't have direct experience of this but I do have a DD who likes to just suck the toothpaste off her own brush - only a tiny amount is put on.

I have just googled 'children eating toothpaste' though and an article (from USA) says that a child who 'injests a tube of toothpaste should be taken to A&E where they would have their stomach pumped or an antidote' - the flouride is classed as a poison.

If it were me, I think I would take her to A&E just to be sure or at least call NHS Direct.

Children are always doing something 'silly' so you just have to keep an eye on her and put the shelves even higher up the wall!

Good Luck

Afraid I don't know Daisy. Hope she's OK though. Try calling a dentist as an alternative to nhs direct?

Pharmaceutical

Good idea about the dentists.

dysgu I found that link too

NHS direct?

my dd used to go to the bathroom and take great big gulps of it at a time, so over the months she did it she would have had much more than a tube!

i talked to the dentist about it and he said it would not cause her teeth to go brown so you should be fine as well.

i suppose its more how much she took at one go that there might be different side effects for.

wikianswers says "Ingestion of toothpaste can lead to flourosis and white spots in primary teeth. Large quantities will lead to gastrointestinal side effect such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea."

I'm just on the phone to DH who thinks that it was less than half full....

It was MacLeans Milk teeth, and a 50ml tube I think.

Will check the company website and maybe call a dentist.

That's Glaxo I think.

jeminthecity.....it'll be the sixth time I'll have called them about her eating habits ....I'm sure bleepers go off and lights flash when they hear my name and postcode.

She has refused breakfast this morning and has been asking for water, so maybe she is feeling the effects.

I'm not sure about it being less than half full.....she only has a smear and the tube isn't that old.

I've called glaxo but there is no-one to take the call until 9am.

right I've found THIS

I need help with the maths though.

"Mortality/Morbidity
One death from ingestion of fluoride toothpaste was reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers in 2002.

No deaths were reported in 2006.1

Death may result from ingesting as little as 2 g of fluoride in an adult and 16 mg/kg in children. Symptoms may appear with 3-5 mg/kg of fluoride.
Estimated toxic dose for fluoride ingestion is 5-10 mg/kg.
Estimated lethal dose is 5-10 g (32-64 mg/kg) in adults and 500 mg in small children."

She weighs 11.6kg so dangerous amounts would be 58-116mg.

If as a worst case scenario she ate 50ml and the fouride level is 1000ppm what does this translate to in mg?

my day just getsd better.

i have a dodgy post baby lower back which is twinging for a couple of days.....I was just cleaning my teeth (damn toothpaste ainga) and it went ping and i couldn't strighten up. i've hs to call dh home (he is away on business) and call a friend to get ds to school and the pils to come na dhelp.

arse arse arse.

they say things come in threes...whart enxt

apols for typing.

Oh blimey Daisy....

That article does say that toothpaste contains 1mg/g flouride, but that's probably adult toothpaste. A cell to the manufacturer - after 9am (!) is probably the safest thing to do. Has she been sick at all? Had a poo yet today?

Hope she - and you - are ok.

From what little I have read previously and the stuff I have just looked at, I would take her to A & E.

Fluoride is fine if ingested in small quantities over a long time scale. The problem is with large quantities ingested rapidly, so the liver has problems coping with the poison.

Hope she is ok but please, if you haven't already, get her checked out rather than wait to speak to manufacturers.

Ring NHS Direct - they have access to poisons units which spend millions of pounds researching this stuff, you don't need to try and do it yourself

Do it asap

nhs direct/a&e now.

I think you should phone NHS direct at the very least who will be able to help you with the dosage and tell you if it's a level of concern.

I doubt Glaxo will give you any kind of medical advice over the phone - they are much more likely to say they can't comment and to take your DD to A&E.

oh, arse I've been too bust being doubled in pain and trying to sort out my schedule as I'm meant to be filming a breastfeeding video and I've had friedns and relatives arriving to taker older DC to school and looking after the littlies.

I want to cry.

will call NHS Dorect.

She seems well though.

arse arse arse nhs direct inundated with swine flu inquiries.....saying 4 hours for callback

4.5 hours have gone by since she ingested it and tbh I would have sought medical help before now so I suggest you take her directly to A&E

she'll be fine

NHS direct said it's of low toxicity and major symptoms are nausea vomiting and diahorrea. She has had a rather productive nappy but is well in all other ways.

And I know I should have called them earlier but as I said I put my back out and had a friend come round to do the school run and then my in laws arrived and have been in a lot of pain and discomfort and have been answering the phone which has been ringing off the hook this morning because of the filming.

off to wear scak cloth and ashes and flagellate myself now