Feeding water to 9 wo

[LadyRenoir]

My health visitor (and one GP on another occasion) recently recommended giving some water (1-2 ounces a day) to my 9wo. He often screams for food even after bigger feeds, but only poos once a day, so she thought it would be a way to make sure he is not overeating to make him poo more often. The thing is, his poo is an OK consistency (not hard, but soft and paste-wise), he just does it only once a day :(

I could not find much advice on NHS website on it. Some other sources mention not to give any water to babies under 6 months old. So what is it in the end?

Also, she did say to feed it in between meals- is there a time frame, lets say after an hour after a feed? Half an hour before?

My eldest only pooped once every other day like clockwork. When he did get constipated the doctor said anything from several times a day to a few times a week cane be normal. If the poo is a normal consistency and baby isn't struggling to "go" I wouldn't worry about giving water. You say he appears hungry after a big feed, could he finish burp and make a bit of room so to speak, would you be better making the bottle a couple of ounces bigger and giving the last bit half an hour later for example?

The problem is that he has reflux, and I have read babies with reflux tend to overeat to soothe the pain sometimes. If he goes over 5 oz he ends up throwing everything up, so his stomach is not yet ready for bigger feeds, so I prefer not going over to be honest for the time being at least, so it's a bit tricky.

I gave my daughter water from birth, she is absolutely fine, just make sure it doesn't have too much nitrate in it (give Evian or cooled boiled water). No there is no time limit, but I'd wait probably about half an hour or an hour, no need to clock watch though. You could even try giving him warmish water which should help him poo - we are only talking a few oz by the way, not a full feed worth of water at once.

If he has reflux then you need to get that treated before thinking of water etc.

Ask for ranitidine for the reflux - we got it at 3mo and was like we had a completely different baby.

Babies of that age don't need water and to much of it can be dangerous for them. I agree that the reflux should get treated before giving unnecessary water

*too much

Hi OP, Is your baby breastfed or formula fed?

@WindyScales He is formula fed.

Re the reflux- the doctor refuses to prescribe anything but gaviscon (which we have started to try out since yesterday, so probably need to wait a few more days for it to start doing something) as he is gaining good weight, and only brings up a bit of food, and GP refuses ranitidine as we are not severe case enough in his eyes...
So we have to pray for gaviscon to work, or we will be facing a screaming child until the reflux goes off on its own.

I only asked as my understanding is that for formula fed cooled boiled water is ok to give to baby but not recommended for breastfed baby.

Hopefully the gaviscon will work. We had the same issue with my daughter and the GP wouldn’t prescribe anything more than gaviscon. She was breastfed which made it hard to administer.

I have a 4week old who we took to the gp yesterday as he has not pooed regularly since day 5. Goes 2-3 days and gets himself very unsettled with straining. ?colic but I think it’s just his bottom giving him trouble. GP said we were fine to give cool boiled water after a feed just in case he needed some extra fluid to move things along. They said it’s not official advice anymore just because some people will take it the wrong way and that water should not be given as a replacement for milk so would be best to offer after a feed that way you know they’ve had their milk etc. We are formula fed aswell. Ready made liquid is supposed to help rather than powder but we’ve always used ready made and it hasn’t helped his poo so who knows!

@charley39 ours was pooing like a dream on ready made formula, every feed he made a poo. But on powder he settled for one daily or every 2 days. Unfortunately instant one is pricey, especially since he started hitting 3-5 oz per meal. It was only doable financially for us the first week or two when he was having smaller feeds.
Have you tried belly massage? For mine it seems to have worked- although maybe it's just me thinking that and he would have pooed anyways.

@WindyScales did the gaviscon end up working for you in the end? I have heard very mixed opinions, but since it's the only option, we though we may as well give it a go.

We regularly do massage and bicycle legs etc but again not sure if sometimes it is coincidence? Never much consistency to his poo when he does go we have to change him straight away or else it leaks out!

As long as his poo isn’t hard pellets, no, absolutely no reason to offer anything extra. Some babies just don’t poo loads and they don’t need to go every day. My first only ever went every 3-6 days (both when bf and ff). That’s just how she was (she’s 5 now and still doesn’t go as much as some kids her age). But when she did go, though she seemed more comfortable after, it was normal poo, not hard. Especially given his reflux, I’d be inclined to leave it and not be putting anything else in his tummy and see if it sorts itself out soon. Mine started to go more often when she started solids.