!0 wks do I give him water or not?

[LJARoo]

Any advice please. My health visitor has told me not to give my baby boiled water until he is 6mths old??? 6 MONTHS? surely he can have water before then? He is 10 weeks now and he must be thirsty as hell. I know they get hydration from milk but I can't quite believe she is saying 6mths. This is my first baby would like to know your opinions on this please. thanks.

6 months is the advice to start weaning I think. Which would include small amounts of water. A lot of people start at 4 months.

But seriously milk is fine and don't worry about it

If he's breastfed he doesn't need water. Have no idea about formula fed babies and water though

they dont need extra water unless it is really hot (not likely now!) or they are constipated. I didnt give water until I started giving solids at 23 weeks in ds's case. (and he was formula fed)

Milk is thirst quenching. More so than water actually.
Mind never had water before 6 months.

Mine never had water before 6 months.
Milk is great at thirst quenching especially if your breast feeding.

Milk is mostly water.

Baby should have milk only, milk will quench his thirst and provide nutrition.

He doesn't need water!! Only if we have scorching hot weather and only if he's a bit older.

Why do you think he's thirsty?

Hi OP,

I know that in years gone by mothers were recommended to give their babies extra water, especially in the summer months, but now it is standard advice to just give them milk for 6 months. I have also heard that in very hot countries it is advised to give extra water, but certainly not the UK in winter/spring.

If your boy is breastfed then you will be told to not give him anything except breast milk for a whole year. This is because breast milk is indeed the healthiest drink for babies. That said, if you decided to give him some water against these guidelines then whenever you did it it would not harm your DS, just mean that he is filling up on something nutritionally empty when he could be getting all of the vits and minerals from milk if you see what I mean.

Formula fed babies, the advice says that they are fine to have a bit of water with meals. I'm not sure why this is different to the breastfeeding advice.

Also I have been told that after 6 months the water doesn't need to be boiled anymore in the UK, but it's up to you if you want to do it anyway.

By meals I mean solids, by the way (in the bit about formula).

4 years ago I was told to give ds water he hates it and still does. My hv told me I can give my dd water but only when she hit a certain weight I give her up to 4oz a day but she is on gaviscon which is yucky she loves water always have! She's now 12 weeks

DD is 2 and still seems to thinks she doesn't need water

If you are BF, the milk your body initially lets down at each feed is designed to quench the baby's thirst.

I'm not in the UK but here I was told in hospital I could give dd milupa baby tea. It's popular on the continent I think. It's fennel and camomile with a small amount of sugar in it. I was told I could give her one bottle a day to space out her feeds. It's also warmer here so I think it was for hydration a bit and to help with digestion.

I don't know why but they preferred me to give her tea rather than water on its own and she had it from birth when she was bf and ff. She's only ff now at 7 weeks and doesn't have the tea as much since we changed her to comfort formula.

Baby tea with sugar in it is not recommended!

The advice is simple.

Bf babies should not need water at all. They can be offered some in a cup alongside trying good at around 6 months.

FF babies should Also need nothing but milk (it is made of mostly water! )

Oops hit post.

Trying food, not good.

FF babies apparently may need a small amount of water in very hot weather, but it should not be used to try and space feeds.

I believe the first sips of breast milk are a drink and the thicker fattier milk is towards the end of feeds. With formula you can see for yourself that its mainly water, think of it like if you drink with a meal it still works to hydrate you its not like it wont count because its with food.
It does fill value space that could have fitted in some nutrient, I remember my mum coming round to show me she knows everything about babies and giving my ds a bottle of water, he was up in the night having the milk he usually would have had during the day if only he wasn't full enough on plain water.

I was told yesterday by my HV to give my 8 week old a little bit of boiled water to help keep his bowls moving.
He is ff so that is probably why. We had ready been doing it and it has definitely been helping him. I was also told to do it with my Dd 3 yrs ago.
Your lo won't need it because they're thirsty though, only if they get a bit constipated.

Milk is pretty much all water! DD didn't have water until 6 months, and still has very little but is well hydrated.

Some people do seem to think (because the bottled water producers have told them) that you aren't "hydrated" by any liquid other than water.

Bf babies don't need water. FF babies might need water in the hot summer months. Otherwise no thus don't need it, the just need milk.

Why do you think babies would get thirsty?

There is absolutely no need to give a ff baby water unless it's really hot or if they are constipated and additional milk isn't helping.

No need at all for bf babies.

Why in earth would he be thirsty. All his nutrition is in liquid form.

What others have said. Also, my understanding is that giving water before 6 months can be dangerous because if you give to much it can lead to water intoxication.