Fluoride, Baby Formula and Nursery Water: What Authorities Say
CDC says formula mixed with fluoridated water may increase the chance of dental fluorosis if it is a child's main source of food; ready-to-feed formula contains little fluoride. Nursery's product page states that “Nursery® water contains a fluoride level of up to 0.7 ppm”; Nursery says it also offers a water without added fluoride.
Key numbers
0.7 mg/L
U.S. Public Health Service recommendation
The U.S. Public Health Service recommends 0.7 mg/L for community water systems that add fluoride.
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1.5 mg/L
WHO guideline value
The World Health Organization's guideline value for fluoride in drinking water is 1.5 mg/L.
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1.5 mg/L
National Toxicology Program (2024)
NTP's 2024 monograph concluded, with moderate confidence, that drinking water containing more than 1.5 mg/L is associated with lower IQ in children.
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2.0 mg/L
EPA secondary standard (non-enforceable)
EPA's secondary (non-enforceable) standard for fluoride is 2.0 mg/L, and exceeding it requires a special public notice.
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4.0 mg/L
EPA maximum contaminant level (enforceable)
EPA's enforceable maximum contaminant level (MCL) for fluoride is 4.0 mg/L, and its health goal (MCLG) is also 4.0 mg/L.
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Your tap water's fluoride
Our ZIP check shows the fluoride level each water system serving a ZIP code reported, where our data has one, and where that level sits against the levels in the table above.
What CDC says about formula and fluoridated water
CDC says formula mixed with fluoridated water may increase the chance of dental fluorosis if it is a child's main source of food; ready-to-feed formula contains little fluoride.
CDC also states that when fluoride in a water system exceeds 2.0 mg/L, the system must notify its customers of the increased potential for dental fluorosis.
An ADA News article of November 26, 2025 describes Steven Levy, D.D.S., as a University of Iowa dental professor and international expert on fluoride intake. In it, Dr. Levy said it is generally okay for most parents to use fluoridated water with their infants, including when they reconstitute infant formula. This is Dr. Levy's statement as reported by ADA News; this page cites it as his, not as a policy of the American Dental Association.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Verified ); American Dental Association (ADA News) (Verified )
Nursery water with and without fluoride
The next two paragraphs are the manufacturer's own statements, from Nursery's product page, not figures from a water quality report.
Nursery's product page states that “Nursery® water contains a fluoride level of up to 0.7 ppm”. Nursery says it also offers a drinking water without added fluoride.
Nursery says its water is purified through reverse osmosis and/or distillation.
For bottled water in general, FDA limits added fluoride to 0.7 mg/L and requires added fluoride to be declared in the ingredient list.
Nursery's website offers its water quality report through a request form.
Sources: Nursery Water (Verified ); U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Verified ); Nursery Water (Verified )
Water options for formula
The kinds of water and formula below are listed with what a source says about each one's fluoride. The list makes no comparison and no choice between them.
Tap water: The U.S. Public Health Service recommends 0.7 mg/L for community water systems that add fluoride. The ZIP check above shows the level each system reported, where our data has one.
Purified, distilled, de-ionized or demineralized bottled water: CDC says these contain no or only trace amounts of fluoride unless fluoride is listed as an added ingredient.
Bottled water with added fluoride: FDA caps added fluoride at 0.7 mg/L and requires it in the ingredient list.
Nursery water: Nursery's product page states that “Nursery® water contains a fluoride level of up to 0.7 ppm”, and Nursery says it offers a water without added fluoride.
Ready-to-feed formula: CDC says ready-to-feed formula contains little fluoride.
Fluoride levels for individual bottled water brands, from each brand's own report, are on our bottled water page.
Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Panel on Community Water Fluoridation (Public Health Reports 2015;130(4):318–331) (Verified ); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Verified ); U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Verified ); Nursery Water (Verified )
Fluoride drops and supplements
On October 31, 2025, FDA recommended that ingestible fluoride drug products be limited to children aged three years and older who are at high risk for tooth decay.
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Verified )
More on fluoride
Frequently asked questions
Is Nursery water just distilled water?
Nursery says its water is purified through reverse osmosis and/or distillation. Nursery's product page states that “Nursery® water contains a fluoride level of up to 0.7 ppm”, and Nursery says it also offers a water without added fluoride. These are Nursery's own statements.
Can babies have tap water with fluoride?
This page reports what each source says rather than answering for any one family. CDC says formula mixed with fluoridated water may increase the chance of dental fluorosis if it is a child's main source of food; ready-to-feed formula contains little fluoride. An ADA News article of November 26, 2025 describes Steven Levy, D.D.S., as a University of Iowa dental professor and international expert on fluoride intake. In it, Dr. Levy said it is generally okay for most parents to use fluoridated water with their infants, including when they reconstitute infant formula.
Sources
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Frequently Asked Questions about Community Water Fluoridation”. https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/faq/index.html (Verified )
- Nursery Water. “Nursery Water Products”. https://nurserywater.com/products/ (Verified )
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Panel on Community Water Fluoridation (Public Health Reports 2015;130(4):318–331). “U.S. Public Health Service Recommendation for Fluoride Concentration in Drinking Water for the Prevention of Dental Caries”. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4547570/ (Verified )
- World Health Organization. “Guidelines for drinking-water quality: fourth edition incorporating the first and second addenda (2022)”. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/352532 (Verified )
- National Toxicology Program (NIEHS). “Fluoride Exposure: Neurodevelopment and Cognition”. https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/assessments/noncancer/completed/fluoride (Verified )
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Secondary Drinking Water Standards: Guidance for Nuisance Chemicals”. https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/secondary-drinking-water-standards-guidance-nuisance-chemicals (Verified )
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “National Primary Drinking Water Regulations”. https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regulations (Verified )
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “FDA Releases Final Rule for Added Fluoride Levels in Bottled Water”. https://www.fda.gov/food/hfp-constituent-updates/fda-releases-final-rule-added-fluoride-levels-bottled-water (Verified )
- American Dental Association (ADA News). “You ask, we answer: Is it safe to use fluoridated water to reconstitute infant formula?”. https://adanews.ada.org/ada-news/2025/november/you-ask-we-answer-is-it-safe-to-use-fluoridated-water-to-reconstitute-infant-formula/ (Verified )
- Nursery Water. “Request Water Quality Report”. https://nurserywater.com/request-water-quality-report/ (Verified )
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Ingestible Fluoride Drug Products”. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/ingestible-fluoride-drug-products (Verified )
Last reviewed by TapWaterData Editorial. How we verify
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"Fluoride, Baby Formula and Nursery Water: What Authorities Say". TapWaterData, last reviewed 2026-10-11. https://www.tapwaterdata.com/fluoride/babies-formula