Supplementing milk with water

[aswellasyou]

Hello everyone.
I am pregnant with my first child and so is my sister. Last week we were talking to our Mum about breastfeeding and I said I was glad that at least I wouldn't need to sterilise bottles for a good few months if it goes according to plan. My Mum then told me that you need to give babies water between milk (whether formula or breast) to stop them becoming dehydrated. This is news to me! I said that I'd not heard or read anything suggesting that so I'd ask on here about it. She only had one pregnancy (we're twins) and we were taken from her and given water as soon as we were born. She was then told to give us water as well as milk. She assumed this was normal for everyone.
Anyway, I would like to know whether that is the norm now or if babies don't need any extra fluid to stay hydrated.
Thankyou in advance.

Not needed unless they are puking or have diarrhoea in which case they sometimes need extra fluids.

Someone raised this the other day on here when it was very hot - and the responses were all saying that you should not supplement with water - that it would fill baby up without any nutrition, and that breast milk is a different consistency throughout the day, sometimes richer, sometimes more watery and that it will provide everything that your baby will need - for the first few months anyway.

Hi there
Breastfed babies don't need water, but formula fed ones do. You can give a formula fed baby boiled (and cooled!) water from about 6 weeks.
I BF my DS for 7 months and I think he first had water when I started weaning him but definitely not before.
Good luck with the BF, its hard work but so worth it

i breastfed both mine for first 3months and always got told by midwife that bf babies dont need any extra water as the first few mouth full of their bf is a water type fluid so they get enough from that. but i know the advice changes. although i was never bf durin hot weather so not sure if they need extra fluids then. bottle fed babies defo need water along side the formula.so once i changed to milk i always had a bottle of water with me.

I FF from birth (long story) and never did / was never advised to give water EXCEPT when DS had a tummy bug and was dehydrated from puking/diarrhoea.

Once DS was being weaned the amount of milk he drank decreased so I introduced water then.

aswellasyou mums are great sources of advice but don't forget that a lot of what they tell you is [insert your age] years out of date!

Thankyou everyone for the responses.
I thought it seemed a bit strange that, although we were designed to breastfeed, babies might need extra fluid. I'll tell my Mum it isn't necessary. She keeps reminding me to ask on here about it and (so far!) isn't claiming everything she did was what we should do with our babies. I think we were formula fed quite early because my Mum was the only earner in our family and went back to work when we were 6 weeks old, so she may not be remembering that the water was for the formula feeding only.
Kity Thankyou, I'm definitely determined to give breastfeeding my best shot.
It does make sense about illness and heat. I'll have some bottles just in case.
Thanks again everyone.