Keeping a FF baby hydrated - any bright ideas!??!?

[ChrissasMissis]

My DS is a bit of a wriggly, fussy feeder these days - he is teething and producing a lots of runny poos. I was talking to the HV about this and she said that I need to keep an eye on his hydration. I have tried giving him cooled, boiled water, but he won't take it at all. It just gets spat out again.

Does anyone have any recommendations about how to keep him a bit more hydrated? Is there anything you have tried with your own LO that has been particularly successful? HV did not offer any practical advice on this one...

???

This sounds odd - are you in a hot country?

If you are in the UK, then I can't understand why the HV would be worried about hydration. Formula milk is largely water anyway (as is breastmilk) and babies under 6 mths are not thought to need any water in addition to milk.

Wriggly, fussy behaviour is not a sign of being poorly hydrated, either.
Maybe call the HV and ask her again why she thinks this s a concern for you, and if you are satisfied with the explanation, your next question is 'how'? :)

Agree with Tiktok. Sounds odd. Expect she was just (Ill put this politely) formulating a theory for which she had no real advice or evidence. How old is he? Personally Id just persevere with how you usually feed him. I doubt you are doing anything 'wrong'.

I assume that her only concern about hydration would come from him having runnier poo than usual. Same as the way you'd think of hydration first if they have diarrhoea. Could she have been pondering an upset stomach as the cause of the loose stools? Depends how loose you mean in comparison to normal as baby poo is runny anyway. If it's changed dramatically then I suppose hydration is something you should be keeping an eye on but she should have been clearer in her line of thought.

The only thing that I never understood about the instructions to make up formula is that if you make it up in ounces you add (slightly) less water than if you follow the instructions for ml. I found with dd that if I followed oz she got constipated. It assumes that 30ml=1oz which is only approximately true. If your child's poos are runny though then that doesn't sound like not enough water.

Ah....she thinks that runny poo is diarrhoea and the baby needs to be hydrated as a result of infection. Runny poo does not have to be diarrhea. Even if it is, today's guidance for a baby of this age (a few months, I guess) is to continue with normal milk feeds.

Thanks everyone - I tend to find myself feeling somewhat puzzled after seeing the HV. DS is almost 6 months and is my first, so I often find myself forgetting to look to my own baby and trust my instincts, as opposed to taking the vast array of unsolicited "medical" opinions that are offered to me! Sorry - don't mean to run HVs down, but they often compound my confusion...

Thank so much for your advice. I wonder if she leapt straight onto hydration, as current advice suggests that runny poos are not a symptom of teething? All of my friends with older children - and I mean ALL - have said that sloppier-than-normal nappies go hand in hand with other teething symptoms. I saw the GP about the runny nappies, just to be certain and she gave me hand-outs about hand, foot and mouth and chicken pox! Not a whiff of discussion about teething!

Anyway, I have begun to wean him now, so am hoping that he will get a little additional hydration from his food. I have been warned that nappy contents gets a bit evil now, so hopefully a runny bottom won't be an issue for much longer!!

HV needs to know (IMO) how unhelpful and confusing she has been - she left you thinking you were doing something wrong, that your baby was at risk, and without any practical guidance about fixing the 'problem' ...and unsure if it was a problem You had to ask an internet forum what to do.

Would you feel brave enough to tell her? :)

Tiktok, it's something I've been umm-ing and ah-ing over for a while. We have seen such an assortment of HVs that it's impossible to feel that you have built any sort of trust relationship with them. The result of that seems to be, as you say, confusion. It genuinely makes me wonder whether any of them have children of their own...