Another thick question about water

[marsup]

Following on from a previous thread, I've got an even more basic question. Why do we boil water before using to make formula? Surely most bacteria would take 20 mins to kill so we should either boil for 20 mins or not at all? (I know this is what I had to do when travelling in Indonesia or Thailand back in the days when I used to travel further than the local Mothercare, but does our tap water have so many bugs?). NB my (French) MIL says I should use only mineral water not tap water. Good thing I'm still b/feeding so far and haven't had to work this out yet!

HV told me you had to watch the sodium content of mineral water?

im not sure on the reason but i presume tap water is to cold i know the main reason i boil is because the milk disolves better when we were away i used mineral water not boiled for ds and i would be there for ages shaking the bottle trying to get all the milk to disolve

can't answer your question on boiling water, but I was told by a french friend; and read in an article about mineral water that is safe for babies, that Evian is the only water with the correct mineral balance. (I always used the boiling water to make up formula because it was cheaper than Evian!!!!)

Also can't answer on the boiling water question, but when I went to Greece last year with dd (at that time 4 months), was given a v. helpful leaflet from HV with details on the max levels of minerals to check for in mineral water. It helps to brush up on your chemical symbols before you go (sodium is Na, for example, - quite an important one!). Evian is fine though.

I presume we boil water to kill bacteria that a baby can't cope with. When DD was 6mths she usually had one poo a day (sorry!) but had new person help me in house and DD had 2 poos a day for two days. Thought this strange as everything clean and she wasn't eating anything new. On second day of x2 poohs, I asked new person to show me how she prepared the bottles for formula. She poured the water from the Brita (which was for the steriliser to stop it furring up) straight into the bottles and closed them. She did not boil the water. Needless to say, I asked her to leave as despite fantastic references, she had her own agenda (yawn, long story). But my point is, I think babies are susceptable (spell check anybody?)and that's why we boil the water probably to one year I would say.
Re: bottled water, I knew a GP whose dd had leukemia and thankfully survived. But she was told by Great Ormond Street Hospital Doctors not to give bottled water as too much bacteria in it. True story.

I personally won't drink bottled water unless I have to as it has too much bacteria in it. I think the boiling is for the last little bit of bacteria that may be in the water. The reason we don't really need to do it for 20 mins is that our water is chlorinated and generally pretty safe. I think also that the 20 mins. is to get rid of viruses as well that aren't really a danger in our water supply. Once I started my children on solids at 6 months (having exclusively bf them until then) I didn't really worry about boiling water if I was giving them water to drink as I figured they were already getting lots of bacteria from their food (and all the random things they put in their mouth off the floor).

Everybody uses Evian for babies in France, as far as I know it's absolutely fine!

Evian is fine - I believe it's mainly the sodium (Na) and Potassium (K) that you should look out for. Look at a bottle of Evian, note down the mineral contents (and what volume these are based on!) and buy a similar cheaper mineral water if you want to.

Evian may be the recommended mineral water for mineral content, but I thought the advice was still to boil bottled water for young babies, as it is no more or less bacterially pure than tap, and may be bacterially worse?
I think tap hygeine contributes a lot to bacterial levels....they quite often have a bit of a build up where the water comes out.

Don't know why it isn't boiled for 20 mins...good q marsup!

Also, doesn't water from plastic bottles have high levels of dioxins etc? Water from glass bottles is better.

I couldn't get onto Mumsnet yesterday so didn't see all these answers till now...thanks everyone. Now I'm feeling totally parnoid and think I should buy Evian in glass bottles and boil it for 20 mins . Actually this seems a bit too paranoid since now DS has taken to putting everything he can reach into his mouth. He isn't crawling yet so this is usually: my hand, my clothes, his clothes, his toys, his sheet, his bib (this is a favourite), dh's hand, my neck when I dance with him (ds that is not dh, who doesn't dance)... this in addition to lots of steamed mashed veggies... I can't even begin to imagine how many bacteria there are in all of that. He must be pretty tough by now, and boiling water seems futile - but Chicpea's story is pretty convincing as the results were so clear straight away. Hhmn...