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Parents of Infants

giving babies water to drink

19 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
19 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
19 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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Thanks to you rhizo, I have made a conscious effort to brink actual water!.I had my coffee as usual (decaf) but made sure to measure out 4 oz of water for my supplements. Coffee is considered half. So, that is one glass. The I had a cup of tea mid morning. With lunch I had a glass of water. I never do this! I'm going to do a half hour on my lifecycle, and will bring down a glass of water. From what my eye doctor has told me (I have dry eyes) you are suppose to drink the after gradually. It needs to have a chance to absorb, so downing it in a hurry really doesn't produce the desired effect. i still don't understand how people drink 8 glasses a day.
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Ok, So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say something you probably won't like: I suspect that much of what you think you know about water isn't correct. The "Dead water" comment was a clue. There is a ton of misleading and unsound information about water that is designed to sell water treatment. I think that is the source of much of your information. You can clean up the taste and odor in your water and reduce some of the trace chemicals by simply using a decent carbon filter. That is what I would suggest. As for fluoride, I think that you are over-reacting to hype about fluoride that is baseless. Note: As you look on your water quality reports it shows how much of a chemical is present compared to an EPA action level. Your Fluoride levels are average 0.5 ppm compared to an action level of 4 ppm. I've said it before: We are really, really bad at assessing comparative risk. Smoking, sedentary lifestyle, not wearing a seat belt, texting while driving, excessive fast food, more than moderate alcohol consumption and owning a gun will shorten your lifespan much more reliably and at a much greater magnitude than 0.4 ppm of Fluoride in your water. Even that bag of microwaved popcorn you had last night has more spooky chemicals than anything coming out of your tap.
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katec810
19 years ago
Does anyone know if there is an exception in very hot weather?
lindac
19 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
19 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
19 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
19 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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