Homemade Toothpaste for Kids

Posted on by Jenny Posted in essential oils, green living, health, kids, saving moneyTagged ,

It’s all well and good to want to avoid a long list of nasty ingredients in kids’ toothpaste (artificial colors, artificial flavors, SLSs, SUGAR…), but it’s entirely another thing to endeavor to make an actually kid-friendly homemade toothpaste. I made a homemade toothpaste for myself, no problem — there are hundreds of results on Pinterest. But just try to get your kids to put that baking soda and peppermint oil flavored stuff in their mouths.

Go ahead and try it, I’ll wait….Now that you are back and completely covered in a fine mist of spit and homemade toothpaste, you can see why I’ve been working for several months on a recipe for homemade toothpaste FOR KIDS. Specifically for kids who are accustomed to that fake crap that is in most toothpastes. I’m not going to lie, we were buying the fancy organic xylitol kids’ toothpaste that cost $7 a tube, but that stuff still tastes like nothing you could find in nature. Super fake. So I had to create something that tasted kinda fake, but wasn’t. Here are the ingredients I used and why, and then the recipe.

Kid-friendly Homemade toothpaste - approved by kids that are accustomed to the "fake" fruit flavors!

Baking soda – All homemade toothpastes are based on baking soda because that stuff is good for your teeth. It’s even in commercial toothpastes.

Lemon essential oil – ONLY USE FOOD SAFE BRANDS. The only ones I know of that are food safe are Young Living and doTerra. Never put an essential oil marked “for aromatherapy use only” into your mouth. Ever. They are not kidding about that. Lemon is a great EO for cleansing and it adds a good, fruity taste.

Food grade hydrogen peroxide – I get mine at a health food store in the refrigerated section. This stuff comes undiluted and is so potent it will literally eat your skin off. The dilution ratio is 1 oz of the concentrate to 11 oz of water. That will give you the concentration you are accustomed to buying at the drug store. You can also use the kind you buy at the drug store in the dark brown bottle, I think. Most of the recipes I found online seemed to use that, but since I already had food grade, I used it because it seemed safer.

Xylitol – This artificial sweetener is actually GOOD for your teeth. Using it regularly has been shown to fight cavities. It should be present in any good toothpaste, in my opinion. You can buy it in nearly any grocery store, but it is actually usually cheapest online or at small natural food stores.

Vanilla Stevia (affiliate link) – Ok, so I wasn’t super happy that I had to include this but I found that without it, my kids would not touch the toothpaste. No matter how much xylitol I used, it was the vanilla stevia flavor that they love. I try to make up for having to include this by making it a very, very small amount. The bottle is expensive, but you know what? The Whole Foods brand costs the same amount as one tube of fancy organic kids’ toothpaste and it will make more than 20 batches of homemade toothpaste. Worth it.

Homemade Toothpaste for Kids - ingredients

Homemade Toothpaste for Kids Recipe

1/4 tsp. vanilla Stevia (affiliate link)

3 tsp baking soda

1 tsp xylitol (affiliate link)

1/2 tsp hydrogen peroxide or water

2 drops food-grade lemon essential oil

 

Mix all ingredients together EXCEPT the water/hydrogen peroxide, at first. Add the water/hydrogen peroxide a little at a time until you reach desired consistency. Store in an airtight container.

My two year old actually said “I like it!” and licked her lips. I think you could also experiment with other flavors of Stevia, but if you increase the amount of Stevia past 1/4 tsp, you might need to reduce or eliminate the water/hydrogen peroxide.

I would love to hear how this recipe worked for you and your kids! Please leave me a comment if you’ve tried it and any variations you might have liked!

 

NOTE: Some of the links to products are affiliate links. I get 2 cents or something if you buy using that link, so I’d love it if you could support the blog and buy that way!

20 thoughts on “Homemade Toothpaste for Kids”

    1. Jenny says:

      I just dip their toothbrush in it and use about as much as I would with conventional toothpaste. This amount lasts about a week, I often double it since I have two kids using it. Then it lasts 10-12 days.

  14. Mara says:

    Young Living and Doterra aren’t the only Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils. There are numerous ones out there. Plant Therapy is one of many. You just need to look for “THERAPEUTIC GRADE”

  15. Elizabeth says:

    So, just to be sure, your recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of the FOOD GRADE (undiluted) hydrogen peroxide, right? Thanks!!

    1. Jenny says:

      Hi Elizabeth! I use food grade hydrogen peroxide diluted to the usable ratio, which is 11:1 water to the concentrate. If you buy it prediluted that would work but undiluted it would eat off your skin 😮

      1. Elizabeth says:

        Ah!!! Yes, I saw your comment in the post about the burning!!! I should have KNOWN from the recipe that there were not enough other ingredients/was not enough water to sufficiently dilute the full strength hydrogen peroxide!! Thank you!!! Will try it soon!

  16. Melissa says:

    I just made this with the exact ratios as above, except I used Trace Minerals instead of the water/hydrogen peroxide (I’ve used it in mouthwash before, so thought it would help re-mineralize). It really does taste good, and my teeth and mouth feel very clean and fresh! Thank you!

    1. Jenny says:

      Trace minerals? Interesting! Do I lose all my crunchy-person cred if I don’t know what those are? I will have to Google it 🙂

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