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Original poster

Tap water or bottled water for kids??

44 replies

Spongebob · 03/04/2006 11:18

Which do you think is safest? I give DS Evian water and mixed his bottle with this too. Our tap water here does not contain fluoride....but still thought it best to drink bottled. Whar are your views on the subject?

OP posts:
ruty · 04/04/2006 09:17

when i lived in a more rural area i drank the tap water because it tasted nice. Here i can smell the whiff of chlorine in the glass. I'm not sure about stricter controls - i still think certain bottled water companies are reputable. Thames Water waste an awful lot of money by letting their pipes decay and decline over the years.

corin · 04/04/2006 09:38

Tap water, definitely. Check contents with your local water board to assuage any misgivings. In Paris, tap water has been found to be extremely similar to Evian water. Plus you don't do the carrying, it doesn't involve any pollution, and it's much cheaper. Above all, it's safe, although advertisers would have us believe differently. Bottled water that stands around after having been opened, even if only for a few hours, evolves very quickly and can develop all kinds of bacteria. Water filters are another con IMO. The calcium contained in hard water is not absorbed by the body in any case, so ...

GDG · 04/04/2006 09:43

Ds1 and ds2 (5 and 3) sometimes have bottled water in their lunchbox - the small kids size Buxton water. Ds3 (19m) sometimes has a bit out of those if I'm having one, otherwise I put tap water in his. The others have tap water in their beakers at night. No reason to this at all! i think our tap water is truly minging taste-wise though and I don't drink it.

When making up bottles though I always used to use tap water boiled.

MMH · 04/04/2006 10:55

Tap water all the way here. It is definately one of the things that I wont allow to eat further into my conscience as a mother.

Eulalia · 04/04/2006 11:08

Tap - the tap water here is lovely (in Scotland). Maybe I should bottle it and sell it...

mommie · 04/04/2006 11:11

we are moving to a house with lead pipes and i was intending to shift to bottled water until we eventually re-plumb. i did get thames water to check the lead content, but they won't do anything unless the levels breach EU standards.

mommie · 04/04/2006 11:15

the house survey said "get rid of lead pipes for health reasons", for what it's worth. but most victorian houses have them.

brodiesmummy · 04/04/2006 11:53

Same as Eulalia, Scottish tap water is great and usually v cold out of the tap. We filter it though for ourselves and DS (17 months)

ruty · 04/04/2006 13:43

i remember being about twenty miles from Glasgow with a friend and we were beside this beautiful reservoir surrounded by mountains. my friend told me this water, which was so clear you could see the bottom in the shallows, went straight to Glasgow. I wouldn't mind drinking that water at all!

ruty · 04/04/2006 13:43

i remember being about twenty miles from Glasgow with a friend and we were beside this beautiful reservoir surrounded by mountains. my friend told me this water, which was so clear you could see the bottom in the shallows, went straight to Glasgow. I wouldn't mind drinking that water at all!

Auntymandy · 04/04/2006 13:48

Tap water. The tests etc to ensure its clean are much highr in tap water than bottled!
I was told children shouldnt drink mineral water?

heymissymum · 04/04/2006 13:56

\link{http://www.ciwem.org/policy/policies/bottled_water.asp\This article} from Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management is very interesting and includes the points listed further below about no general health advantage to bottled water (expect, I would think, in countries that have problems accessing clean and safe drinking water)

All water bottled, mineral or tap should be boiled in anycase and the Department of Health and NCT advise mothers to use tap water boiled and cooled for babies. \link{http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=366212&in_page_id=1774\Daily mail article} refers to this and also the Governments Toxicity Committee advising of dangers of bottle / mineral water.

Our tap water is fine and dd has been drinking it since age of one. Bottled water, mineral, spring or otherwise can actually be two or more years old, having sat in a warehouse and then shop shelf for great periods of time. When out and about I've purchased bottle water for dd who is now 2 but always like to be prepared and take a flask of my own. Holidays are more of a problem -in Bali recently we relied heavily on bottled water - Singapore presented no problems at all - everyone advised the tap water was safe but should be boiled and cooled for babes - in Spain we boil and cool.

Extracts from \link{http://www.ciwem.org/policy/policies/bottled_water.asp\CIWEM}

  1. Health: there is no general health advantage in replacing tap water with bottled water, and people should be protected from false claims in this regard.
  1. Quality: as a minimum, bottled waters should meet the requirements of the appropriate Codex Standard 1 of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations World Health Organization.
  1. Labelling: the labels on bottles in which any treated or untreated water offered for sale to the public should include a chemical and bacteriological analysis of the water and the dates of bottling and analysis. An EU-defined standard for the labelling of bottled waters would be helpful.
  1. Infant nutrition: except where it can be demonstrated that a bottled water is suitable for the purpose, it should be made clear to health officials and parents preparing infant formula or follow-on formula milk that tap water rather than bottled water should be used in its preparation 2 . Bottles of water which have not demonstrated suitability should be required to carry a warning to this effect.
MummyToToby · 04/04/2006 20:28

we drink filtered tap water, but my nan lives in an old victorian house with lead pipes and only uses bottled.

MadamePlatypus · 04/04/2006 21:35

Apparently, if you leave your tap water in the fridge for a couple of hours the chlorine taste goes away. Haven't actually tried this myself though.

elastamum · 04/04/2006 22:58

I give everyone tap water here and when we are in Europe or the US but I also have a filter as my DH who is from up north thinks Thames Water tastes disgusting

katyrocks · 04/04/2006 23:08

while we're on the subject, kids have started drinking loads more water since we got new plumbed in fridge, but its filtered so takes out the flouride. whats better for them, less with or more without??? its been bugging me!

Jennypog · 05/04/2006 09:23

To join the rally for tap water! My 2 drink tap water and I started drinking it with a vengeance last year. I now find bottled water very flat tasting - horrible actually.

Bottled water is just marketing hype.

blueshoes · 05/04/2006 12:06

Tap all the way, and I live in London in a Victorian house. Can't be bothered with anything else. Better tap than juice/fizzy drinks.

2labs · 05/04/2006 13:22

Filtered tap water - unfiltered ours tastes disgusting and furs up the kettle instantly.

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