Does My New Baby Need Water?

[SH27]

Hello,

I have a 10 day old baby boy. He is being breastfed with a top up of formula as he is a big boy. My midwife doesn't think he needs water to drink, but my mum, mother in law and our pharmacist friend seems to think we should offer cooled boiled water.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Many thanks and Merry Christmas.

SH

it depends, is he pooing ok?

no babies that young dont need water

Breast-fed babies don't need additional water, even if they're being topped up with formula. Breastmilk is a drink as well as food and will be giving him exactly what he needs.

agree with wigwam, sorry just saw the formula bit. the 1st part of your milk is a drink, the 2nd (or hind) milk is the food. trust your mw on this

Water wouldn't have any nutrtional value. It would just fill him up without providing any calories.

It's water, it wouldn't hurt anything, but unless your boy is really dehydrated it wouldn't really help anything either.

Pharmacists dont know about breastfeeding. A head pharmacist where my mum worked insisted my dd needede water from a bottle but I knew that was bollox. Babies only need breastmilk.

You don't have to give the formula unless yopu want to either. Big babies needing a top up is a complete myth.

no, no water needed. even if your baby was fully formula fed, he would only need water if it was a boiling hot summer and you were concerned about him becoming dehydrated. your mw will have up to date training on baby feeding, which your family and friends won't!

i would like to stress what another poster said that your baby doesn't need a top up with formula 'because he is a big baby'. topping up with formula will undermine your breast feeding, not support it.

how else do you think women successfully breastfeed twins? i hope your mw didn't tell you your baby needs any formula.

sorry if this post sounds stroppy. its not meant to. just concerned about the information you were given.

Agree that you don't need to top up because baby is 'a big baby'. Otherwise how do babies of 3m/4m+ etc. be satisfied for instance.
Only time I would consider extra water is if baby is constipated.

I'm quite concerned about the top-up of formula at this early stage if you want to continue breastfeeding. Your milk supply won't be fully established yet and replacing breastmilk with anything, be it formula or water can cause problems later on with supply. Can I ask who suggested it and why? Your body is quite capable of feeding a larger baby without any formula! Water really isn't necessary and fills your baby up so he doesn't take as much milk.

My six day old girl hadn't pooed for a whole day and the midwife said give her cooled boiled water. It worked! It's obviously helpful if you need that reaction from your baby, but ordinarily there is no need to give a baby water.

I agree that big babies don't need topping up. I speak as a mum who successfully bf twins for 18 months (until the lure of a salsa weekend caused me to wean the wee blighters).