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Parents of Infants

giving babies water to drink

17 years ago

I have a new grandbaby and I was surprised to hear that his pediatrician has said that babies should not be givien water to drink until they are about 5 months old. As a result he only is offered formula.

I can see a concern if water were filling the baby up so he wouldn't get any nourishment, but an ounce every now and then is bad?

Is this a new thing now? My kids drank water and they grew up healthy.

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Comments (7)

coolmama
17 years ago
The pediatrican is correct.You are NOT supposed to give babies water. I'm not exactly sure why,but I was told this and I have read it in books.So,I never gave my daughter any until she was about 8 months old.
christy2828
17 years ago
This is the information that I found about babies drinking water. Summed up, it states that babies get enough water through breastmilk or formula. In rare cases, babies can develop a condition called water intoxication. On another site, I read that it can cause jaundice. Here is the site, if you want to read the article :) Christy

Here is a link that might be useful: Baby Center
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Grainlady's "Sassy Water" is fab (see below for post/recipe saved on my computer). Follow the proportions. When I've winged it, it hasn't been nearly as good. And do use water that starts out tasting good, or else purified. I use my favorite spring water. I've never added the tea bags, and generally can't get spearmint, so use regular garden mint. I made a LOT of "Sassy Water" last summer (Prevention Magazine Recipe from the Flat Belly Diet). It's supposed to be for weight loss (which I wasn't aware of when I had it at a friends home and asked for the recipe), but it WAS a good use for all those cucumbers and mint from the garden and a nice refreshing drink. You will find several versions of this recipe on-line. I also added a couple flavored tea bags to the mixture like Lemon Zinger, Wild Berry Zinger, Bigelo Perfect Peach Herb Tea or Celestial Seasonings Country Peach Passion to give it different flavors and colors. If you have a cutting mandolin, it's the quickest way to slice the cucumber and citrus. 8 1/2 cups water 1 teaspoon grated ginger 1 medium cucumber, sliced thin 1 medium lemon, sliced thin 12 leaves spearmint (any mint will work) Directions: 1 Mix all ingredients together in a pitcher. 2 Refrigerate overnight. 3 Strain water. -Grainlady
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The Cook's Kitchen has a point, but I'm going to assume you've decided on your fridge for a reason. So, you can install a filter that won't reduce your flow, or you can install a separate faucet. You can buy a standard filter holder and filters. For example: - A Pentek 10" "Big Blue" filter holder - $35 - A Pentek 10" GAC carbon filter - $24 (you would replace this once a year) This setup would give you 2 gpm flow (your sink faucet is limited to about 2.5 gpm) You are talking less than $100 (including shutoffs, etc). Or you could do the same thing with a 20" Pentek Big Blue filter and housing The 20" gives you flow rates of up to 5 gpm at a 2 psi pressure drop. This is generally more than you need - but you won't have any significant pressure loss. I installed a 20" "Big Blue" filter holder and then a KDF 55 and carbon filter. The KDF 55 and carbon will be fine going 2 years between changes. It has a 3 gpm flow rate. You can install this under the sink. I installed mine in the basement and it runs to a 4 port PEX manifold. I currently run it to the kitchen sink cold water as well as the ice maker in the fridge. I can also run filtered cold water to the bathroom sink faucets if I want when I redo the plumbing to those rooms.
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katec810
17 years ago
Does anyone know if there is an exception in very hot weather?
lindac
17 years ago
If your baby is sick and vomiting or has diahrrea or is sweating excessivly, by all means give them a little water.
And if you have a baby that has thrush, it's a good idea to give a few swallows of water after a feeding to rinse out the mouth.
Remember an infant is on a liquid diet...and likely gets all the water they need.
Linda C
xine
17 years ago
The water DOES fill up that little belly, causing the baby to not want the nutrious formula or breastmilk.

Don't all you dieters know that you're supposed to drink water to fill up your stomach when your hungry... :)

That being said, when I recently had my three-month-old at a spring training baseball game in central FL and the weather was 84 and we were sitting in full sun (baby was protected from the sun though), I DID give her a little water in a clean bottle. It just seemed to be too hot and nasty in that situation to give her formula. It was a one-time-only situation, though.
stixoffire
16 years ago
My pediatrician said a SMALL amount of water would be fine - to try to train the child that if they wanted milk, it came at certain times , not every 20 minutes... use it dont abuse it. and YES they are getting plenty of fluids with breast or formula.. but when you are trying to get them on a schedule .. our ped.. recommended a little water between meal times to get the baby on a schedule - we gradually shifted the times from every hour to every 4 hours now she eats with us most of the time, except at night she gets her milk before bed time (she does not like to go to bed before 11pm - takes after her daddy (me) and I also like a snack before bed.. )
jenathegreat
16 years ago
Perhaps the formula "recipe" has changed over the years so that water was necessary years ago, but isn't anymore. Just a thought, I've no idea if that's correct or not.

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