We avoid a lot of ingredients in our home, and one product that has many of these ingredients is toothpaste. What do we avoid in toothpaste?

Fluoride. Yep, our family is anti-flouride. Did you know fluoride was reclassified by medical officials as a developmental neurotoxin? 

Synthetic dyes. I am not sure why putting synthetic dyes in toothpaste is necessary. We avoid it in food, and also in toothpaste.

Propylene Glycol. This ingredient really infuriates me, it's in so much of our food, beauty and skin products and also... Toothpaste.

SLS/SLES. This is what makes things foam. If you haven't switched your body washes and/or soaps over to ones without this ingredient you probably equate clean with foam. Not true. If you have chronic canker sores, this ingredient could be the culprit.

Parabens. This ingredient was one of the first ingredients I ever avoided buying when I first started reading labels.

Besides your skin, your mouth is one of the quickest ways to absorb ingredients into your body. Plus, you have to think about what those ingredients do to our environment once they go down the drain. Instead of taking an hour reading labels in the toothpaste aisle next time you're shopping, take a few minutes and make your own.

I have two different recipes.

The first recipe is one I use at home:
2 tablespoons of organic coconut oil
2 tablespoon of baking soda
Put the ingredients in an airtight container (I use a 4 oz canning jar) and stir well. Baking soda cleans and is a natural abrasive so it helps scrub the plaque and other gunk off. Coconut oil is anti-microbial, antibacterial and antifungal... and will melt in your mouth, helping spread the baking soda with the toothbrush.

The second recipe is noted because I will admit that if you have small children and don't always regulate the tooth brushing every time, they will use too much and the coconut oil tends to solidify back up and the drain.  So I usually take wooden chopstick and jam it down the drain with the hot water on and it solves the problem. ?

2 tablespoons of baking soda And enough olive oil to make a paste (about a teaspoon).

Still need a toothpaste recommendation?

I buy Jason Natural Toothpaste or Babyganics when I have to buy it. (affiliate links)