Accidentally added extra ounce of water to feed.

[WeeG123]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice as a first time parent. Our three-month-old son has moved completely over onto formula now. My partner prepares the formula tubs we use with 7oz of formula in each. We found our son was leaving a little bit in each bottle after a 7oz feed and was a bit sicky so decided to cut it back down to 6oz. We had two 7oz cupped feeds left so we decided to finish them and then go back to 6oz cups of formula.

This morning my partner started cupping 6oz formula into our little tubs as we were heading out for the day. In my stupidity, I forgot we were moving back to 6oz bottles and put 7oz of water in first with a 6oz formula tub. This means our son got an extra oz of water in his feed today.

I’m so worried as you read about water intoxication, feeds not made correctly making baby ill etc. He seems fine but I’m still worried. Is there anything to look out for in terms of his health after this mix up or do you think he’s likely to be okay?

Please, please be kind with me x

Kindly, he’s absolutely fine x

He will be absolutely fine. You’ll struggle to find an infant on formula who has never had an extra ounce of powder or water in their life- it’s very common to get in a muddle and there is of course contingency built in for that. Please don’t worry.

Seriously? You'll be fine. Health professionals advise feeding an ounce of cooled boiled water to infants during every soften during hot spells, so an accidental extra ounce will have no negative effect whatsoever.

That isn’t nearly enough to cause water intoxication. Just be careful going forward, as doing this repeatedly could lead to a calorie deficit.

Please don't worry, it will be fine.

The only thing that might happen in this scenario is he might be hungry sooner because his feed was ‘watered down’

He’ll be absolutely fine.

If it was every feed for a long time, you might have more of an issue. Probably that he would be hungry, rather than having water toxicity, but a one off will not be an issue.

I agree, I bet every formula fed baby has had a wrongly made up bottle at least once. It’s just one of those things

Seriously, this is a total non issue.

They are the importance of not watering it down because otherwise some mum's will do it because formula is so expensive, not thinking that their child isn't held as much nutrition. And long term making it more concentrated is going to be harder for them to digest.

As a one off, is really doesn't matter. The service keeps changing about giving babies extra water during hot weather, apparently now you shouldn't, but 8 years ago when my child was a baby, we would, and it wasn't felt to be a risk, didn't hear of babies becoming ill through it. The advice will probably change again in a few years time.