What age do you give baby water?

[Ce098]

So I’m a first time mum and I’ve been told by so many mums to start giving baby water at 3/4 months... my daughter is 4 months tomorrow and I’ve been giving her water for 3 days now. But every nappy change there’s been a little bit of poo.. has anyone else had this problem?

@TinySleepThief I didn’t know any of this as I rarely saw my midwife during my pregnancy because of COVID and my health visitor hasn’t been in contact with me at all! I will have a read up on it thank you.

@Wishfulthinking1977 yes it really is! I never expected to have to give birth on these circumstances, it’s horrible for anyone! Oh wow, how was your baby on water from 2 weeks? Thank you so much for the advice, it means a lot! :)

@Megan2018

You give water when weaning no earlier than 6 months, unless formula fed and in very hot weather. A 3/4 month old baby does not need water in this weather, why in earth would you think it necessary? Stop it for goodness sake

Bit dramatic

OP it's not recommended and there's no need for it, but a little bit of water won't have done any harm.

@saussaggessandmasshh thank you :)

A little bit of water won't have caused a 4 month old any harm!

Once you start giving solid food (after 17 weeks at the earliest, and the recommendation is around 6 months) you can offer water in a sippy cup with meals.

[quote Ce098]@Wishfulthinking1977 yes it really is! I never expected to have to give birth on these circumstances, it’s horrible for anyone! Oh wow, how was your baby on water from 2 weeks? Thank you so much for the advice, it means a lot! :)[/quote]
She was born during a very hot summer! Refused to drink formula after 6 months! As I said I know advice has changed! But ultimately in my opinion mum's know best and the support for first time mums recently is hard to come by! Your doing your best in a very difficult situation! Ask for advice, accept help and overall enjoy being a mum xx

I'm sorry you've had such nasty responses.

General advice is to not give water until baby has started on solids.

I was advised to give my youngest (ff) an ounce of water when he was constipated on a hot day at 4.5 months, and it did the trick.

I don't think there's any need for it unless baby is showing signs of constipation though - when they're young their stomachs are tiny so they need to use that space for nutritious milk!

Formula fed babies can have small amounts if very hot or constipated. Bf babies don't need it in hot weather as the milk thins naturally. All can have it whilst weaning after roughly 6 months.

@Wishfulthinking1977 oh bless her. How is she now? Thank you so much, I am enjoying it so much just struggling with the circumstances we are in right now but hopefully will all be over soon🤞🏼 Xx

@PolytheneHam

I'm sorry you've had such nasty responses.

General advice is to not give water until baby has started on solids.

I was advised to give my youngest (ff) an ounce of water when he was constipated on a hot day at 4.5 months, and it did the trick.

I don't think there's any need for it unless baby is showing signs of constipation though - when they're young their stomachs are tiny so they need to use that space for nutritious milk!

@PolytheneHam It’s okay, I know some people can be so nasty I just don’t see the need for it.

Thank you so much for the advice! X

[quote Ce098]@Wishfulthinking1977 oh bless her. How is she now? Thank you so much, I am enjoying it so much just struggling with the circumstances we are in right now but hopefully will all be over soon🤞🏼 Xx[/quote]
She's 25! With a baby of her own and another on the way! She's rarely ill! My ds I had to wean at 10 weeks as he wouldn't settle between feeds! He's now 6ft 5 and again never ill! Nobodies way is the right way, they don't come with instructions! You do what you feel is right! It seems to me that's exactly what you are doing but reaching out for some some advice/support that is difficult to get atm! Your doing amazing! Xx

Megan2018

@Ce098 This isn’t something for discussion- it’s basic care. You should know that this is not ok. I’m a FTM yet I know this, what’s your excuse?
Who on earth are all these ignorant people that you know and why would you flout basic rules on how to feed a baby to follow what they do ??

You really should have to pass a test to have a baby.

Megan love, she's not giving the baby heroin or crack. Chill. You have won the award for the most inappropriate, odd rant/reply. Give it a rest. Is there a secret club where people just jump on people's threads to be unhelpful? You win. Now, these ignorant people are our mothers and grandmothers who did all this by trial and error. My mum insisted on giving my 5 month old water, but it's ok I didn't scream at her. I just got the "it was alright in my day" If you read the thread, first time mum doing a bloody good, job birthing almost alone during lockdown and just asking a bit of advice! You are doing fine op, a little boiled, cooled water 6 months. You can always ring health visitor, it's a shame as we used to go and weigh them once or twice a month, have a chat over baby's health but it's all changed now :-(

Test passed!!!

@Clearthinking

Megan2018

@Ce098 This isn’t something for discussion- it’s basic care. You should know that this is not ok. I’m a FTM yet I know this, what’s your excuse?
Who on earth are all these ignorant people that you know and why would you flout basic rules on how to feed a baby to follow what they do ??

You really should have to pass a test to have a baby.

Megan love, she's not giving the baby heroin or crack. Chill. You have won the award for the most inappropriate, odd rant/reply. Give it a rest. Is there a secret club where people just jump on people's threads to be unhelpful? You win. Now, these ignorant people are our mothers and grandmothers who did all this by trial and error. My mum insisted on giving my 5 month old water, but it's ok I didn't scream at her. I just got the "it was alright in my day" If you read the thread, first time mum doing a bloody good, job birthing almost alone during lockdown and just asking a bit of advice! You are doing fine op, a little boiled, cooled water 6 months. You can always ring health visitor, it's a shame as we used to go and weigh them once or twice a month, have a chat over baby's health but it's all changed now :-(

Test passed!!!

@Clearthinking Thank you ever so much. I didn’t know what to expect when I posted this but for that woman to be so bloody rude, makes me laugh really! Yes I know it’s terrible the way things are now, never expected it to be like this ever! I guess it just makes us all stronger and more independent :) I never have asked for advice from anyone before other than my partner whom is also a first time dad so doesn’t really help much haha! So I thought I’d just add a little post on here, there really are some lovely people in the world (some not so nice) so thank you very much for your kind words! Xx

[quote Ce098]@CeeceeBloomingdale I’m just wondering if it was okay back then to start weaning at 4 months, why not now? What’s changed?[/quote]

There is growing evidence that we should wean at 4 months. There is some belief that the increase in allergies is due to later weaning.

I believe the reason the guidelines for weaning were changed to 6 months is because a lot of people start earlier than the recommended guidelines - so if it was 4 months they worried people would start at 2/3 months.

OP ignore the rude idiots on here. A little bit of cooled, boiled water isn’t going to harm your DC. It just isn’t required before 6months unless they’re constipated or hot. Plenty of us gave our kids water before 6 months and they’re still alive and kicking FFS

Here's the article about weaning and allergies (sharing token):

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2537d72a-cb28-11e8-998e-a6e3c63abd14?shareToken=de4c3c897e25d3b58a476d586bc65e8c

Choice quote: "In short, this new approach goes in direct opposition to the NHS’s decision in 2003 to order parents to hold off weaning until the baby is six months, a policy that New Scientist termed “one of the worst wrong turns in the history of parenting advice”."

@Giningit

OP ignore the rude idiots on here. A little bit of cooled, boiled water isn’t going to harm your DC. It just isn’t required before 6months unless they’re constipated or hot. Plenty of us gave our kids water before 6 months and they’re still alive and kicking FFS

@Giningit thank you. I agree, I mean it hasn’t done my baby girl any harm just a little bit of poo in each nappy change, other than that she is absolutely fine :)

@Ce098 Keep posting for advice, don't let the rude and unhelpful ones knock your confidence, lots of great posters on here who've lots of experience.

Definitely try and push for more support with your health visitor or GP though as I found the first year so difficult, feeding, weening, sleep and routines can be tough. 👍

I’m in Australia so we have a decent laundry trough. I bathed dd in one of those cradle things in it and had the water almost up to her chin to replicate being in the uterus.

She would actively slide down to sip the water and then push herself up again for splashing. This was from five days old.

It was just ordinary tap water and might even have been weed into.

She is now a stroppy teenager.

@TheSandgroper

I’m in Australia so we have a decent laundry trough. I bathed dd in one of those cradle things in it and had the water almost up to her chin to replicate being in the uterus.

She would actively slide down to sip the water and then push herself up again for splashing. This was from five days old.

It was just ordinary tap water and might even have been weed into.

She is now a stroppy teenager.

@TheSandgroper Hahahaha this comment got me!!😂

[quote ellieboulou33]@Ce098 Keep posting for advice, don't let the rude and unhelpful ones knock your confidence, lots of great posters on here who've lots of experience.

Definitely try and push for more support with your health visitor or GP though as I found the first year so difficult, feeding, weening, sleep and routines can be tough. 👍[/quote]
Thank you @ellieboulou33 I will definitely be contacting health visitor more, maybe just for reassurance..
I have a few friends who have had babies a few months before me, so I ask them for advice about things rather than trying to contact doctor or health visitor unless it’s something very worrying! X

The advuce to give it at 6 months is pretty standard and was certainly covered in the 1 day course we did at the hospital pre birth

That must have been a very comprehensive antenatal class if it covered everything up to age 6 months. My NCT classes told us about the birth, feeding choices and a bit about relationships. We might have had to change a nappy on a doll. And even if they did cover everything dont you think its conceivable that someone might have forgotten the brief "dont give them water" message in what would have been a huge information overload?

Health visitors are pretty useless with this sort of thing in my experience, especially at the moment when the clinics and parenting classes arent running due to covid. Nobody professional ever gave me advice on weaning.

the advice changes so much so quickly it’s always worth checking
While I agree it's worth checking, it is.not true that advice changes often. The advice about not weaning until 6 months has been around for something like 15 years now.

Also as an aside, if checking it's best to use a reputable source such as NHS website.

Also, once she gets to 6m it doesn't need to be cooled boiled water, tap water is fine. If you are out some bottled water is fine (eg, Evian) but others have too much sodium.

@Camomila

Also, once she gets to 6m it doesn't need to be cooled boiled water, tap water is fine. If you are out some bottled water is fine (eg, Evian) but others have too much sodium.

Oh that’s good to know, thank you so much!!😅