Happy Week 20 everyone! I hope all you Mamas out there had a great Mother’s Day. My son is 4.5 and I think this was the first year he really “got” Mother’s Day and was excited to celebrate- such a sweet kiddo! What did you do?

smiling-tooth-with-toothbrush

Today for our challenge I wanted to talk about brushing teeth. There’s been a lot in the media lately about microbeads- the little plastic beads found in a number of products. Toothpaste happens to be one of the top places that these beads are found. The issue with these microbeads is that they’re so small that they can get stuck in your gums, don’t get properly filtered out by the water systems and are ending up in the bellies of animals in the oceans! Yuck- who wants to brush teeth with plastic?!?!

Why not give making your own tooth-powder or toothpaste a shot? You’ll know exactly what’s in it, you can control the flavor to your liking and you can buy the ingredients in bulk. Even if you’re currently using a natural brand of toothpaste give this a shot. My son loves to help me make tooth powder!

There are gobs of recipes out there, I started out using this recipe from Wellness Mama and ended up adapting it to the preferences of my family. I now use bentonite clay, red clay, baking soda, activated charcoal, sterilized egg shells, fine salt, herbs (such as peppermint, cinnamon, cloves), essential oils, and magnesium powder. We add the ingredients to our mortar and pestle and grind it to a nice fine powder. I then mix it 50/50 with coconut oil and we use it as a toothpaste. My family’s current favorite flavor is orange spice.

 

Have you ever made your own toothpaste or tooth powder??

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Olivia lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and 4 year old son.  She enjoys spending time in the mountains, studying about essential oils, natural remedies and herbs, as well as upcycling/ DIY projects.  Olivia’s family made the move last year towards becoming a Zero Waste household.  They have gotten down to one bathroom sized trashcan a month of garbage but hope to be totally Zero Waste by the end of 2015.
Like this?  Check out the rest of our Waste Less and Be Green in 2015 series for more tips!

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