Advice re water for bf baby from doctor.......

[BCLass]

From lady at baby club today...

Bf baby, told at 6 wk check could now give bottles of water if baby thirsty - he also added straight out of tap, no need to boil. HV face and mine

Any comments??

Its bollocks.

I hope the HV explained as much?

well, technically she COULD give water if she really wanted to.
however it is completely and utterly unecessary.

as for tap or boiled? well of course he should have said to boil it, though personally I doubt it makes much difference. we have good clean water here

Its not just unnecessary - it will undermine BF and milk supply.

Giving water to a fully BF baby will cause them to feed less frequently. Less feeding = less stimulation = supply problems.

The HV wants to do more than look .

She needs to contact the GP - politely, in case he/she said nothing of the sort, and say she has heard one of his/her patients is saying this. If the GP did not say it, then perhaps communication skills could be improved. If the GP did say it, then a spot of information-sharing is needed

WTF!!!?

however, my aunt who brought up her children in hotter climes used to drive me nuts with her 'where's her water bottle lovey?' every time I saw her... DD3 was bf till 15 months and never had a bottle, we live in Scotland, I doubt it ever got to 20degrees during that time....

HV did take his name and practice name so hopefully there will be some information sharing!

i've heard you can give water but would find out more about it before i did

Never found it necessary to give water to my BF son until he was about 7 months old. BF babies just don't get constipated the way FF babies can.

This makes me really angry, actually. Not only can it undermine Bfing but it could harm the baby.

Even in tropical climes you don't need to give water to a BF baby - even if you're on holiday there and don't live there. Your body adjusts very quickly to provide appropriate BM.

AFAIK your body makes more "watery" breast milk when it is hot. It certainly worked for us during the hot periods this year.

We never gave water until DS was on solids as I know my body isn't clever enough to take those into account

My HV advised giving a bit of water to my 9 weeks old at night if she wakes up before 7 am. She told me to give an ounce or so after I complained about her morning feeds.

I have a question, if anyone knows: I'm breastfeeding my DS at the moment so don't know much about bottles. If I do decide to give her water at 5-6am, can I prepare that bottle in the evening and keep it by the bed or do i need to get up and boil water then cool it, please?

Vitka - at 9 weeks your HV is talking rubbish IMO. If your DD wakes up it is because she is hungry or needs comfort!

Argh! I saw a very Old Skool midwife at the local unit, at about 12 weeks, because we were still having minor feeding problems. She told me he was a 'big boy' now, and that I should make him wait 4 hours between daytime feeds, and give him water from a bottle if he cried about it. She was full of pearls of wisdom, that one. Not one of our regular local mws, I hasten to add.