Giving boiled water to bottle fed baby

[alibobble]

dd has switched from BF to bottle for variey of reasons. Anyway... hen it was hot and was BF would just give extra feeds so she could have a drink. Does anyone have advice on thirst with bottle fed babies so I don't end up giving too much formula.

Usual routine =

7am
Somewhere between 10.15-10.45
Somewhere between 2 - 2.30
Depending on 2 pm feed may feed anytime between 5 and 7pm (when she goes down to sleep)
wake for 10.30 feed at night so she sleeps thro

I used to have a bottle of water hanging around all the time and would just offer it to ds at random intervals, or when ever he whined, in case he wanted it.

how old is dd?

dd is 13 weeks. Seems happy enough when weather cool but sometimes frazzled when it's hot or been in the car. Forgot to mention, still BF morning feed for now.

She may not need water at all. If you think she looks warm rather than hungry you could offer water then. You could give water between feeds if she becomes constipated. There are no hard and fast rules. If she seems to want fed soon after a bottle feed you could offer water then. You could also offer the breast inbetween times too if you want.

i mix fed, like you, so i never really offered water because i was frightened it would screw up my already dwindling supply, but by the time the hot weather came she was already being weaned so i offered her water then.

clearly your instincts are to give her water when she looks hot and frazzled, so i'd go with that. it makes sense to me.

I also found washing dd's face down with a damp facecloth (or a hat soaked in water, during one particularly fractious car journey) is good, and she could chew on it/suck on it too. i suppose if she'd have sucked loads i'd have known to give her water too, but she never really did.

Thankyou for your help and advice. Think I'll keep the bottle on hand and just give it if I think she's thirsty not hungry. I think it might also be because we've just moved house from the world's coldest and draughtiest house to one with actual insulation and double glazing so it's much warmer!

I was told that all bottle fed babies need to be drinking water in warm weather. I always made up a bottle of boiled water in the evening and put it in the fridge overnight so there was water ready for ds the next day. I made sure he always had at least 2 -4 oz a day. Then when he was on solids he had a coulple of ozs with each meal at first, building up to having water handy all day.

i know this is sota unrelated but when they say that bottle fed babies get constipated compared to breast fed and have noticed this with dd. But isn't like they describe in books as really bad, just more than before. She goes red in the face ang gets upset when she poops. Does the water help that or just serious bunged upness?! Btw she loved v watered down pure apple juice but have been told not to give by health visitor (who is v down to earth btw) because no fluoride in water so bad tooth decay in area.

Ds was quite constipated and giving him water before each feed, just half oz or so, has helped a lot. He still goes red and grunty, but seems to be causing him much less discomfort that it was.