When to give water

[Neetalu]

Hi everyone,

My dd is 8 week old and has been ebf until recently when I've been giving her one bottle of formula in the evening to give me a break.

I know that she doesn't need water when ebf but how about ff?

My plan is to slowly switch to ff ready for my return to work.

So when do I introduce water and how often? What is everyone's experiences?

Thanks guys

you dont need to give her extra water until you introduce solids unless it is extremely hot weather or she is constipated. Neither of my formula fed babies had water until they were at weaning age.

Babies don't need water at all until they start solids at 6 months, and many don't take water until solids are well established and the weather is warm.

For the first 6 months only breast or formula milk is necessary - both have a high water content so nourish and hydrate at the same time.

The advice is that babies don't need water, apart from ff babies in very hot weather. Until you introduce solids.

However my 10 weeks old was becoming really fussy when feeding (she's ff) and my mum said my brother used to get like that when he was dehydrated and suggested I give her some water, I offered her some water and she had about an oz and hasent been fussy since. But I won't do it again until talking to my hv. But it did seem to be the problem.

Offer water when you give solid food