Can I give newborn water to top up?

[Watermelonbaby1]

My son is 11 weeks old and has become a very hungry baby! Recently he has been wanting to eat every 3 hours almost on the dot. I am giving 6oz bottles at the minute which is too much to feed him every 3 hours so I try my best to play/talk/keep him occupied to reach 4/5 hours at least before I feed him but most of the time he screams and sucks on hands so viciously that I have to feed him earlier. As soon as he’s had his bottle he’s the happiest baby smiling so I feel awful trying to make him wait all the time. I have tried giving him less oz per feed but this leads again to even more frequent feeding. From 12 weeks I have been told he should be on 7oz bottles every 5 hours so would like to give him this but scared he will gain too much weight because he will still want to feed every 3 hours. When I went for an appointment at 9 weeks he was just slightly above average weight but am now scared he’s gaining too much as he’s eating more often than he was then. So my question is can I give my newborn cooled down boiled water with just a bit of formula in every so often when he is wanting to feed constantly so he’s happily full but will not put on as much weight?

OP, how would you be feeling now if you had not had any drink of anything since 3:30pm now it’s 8:30pm? Let alone a biscuit or something, please don’t make your baby go 5 hours with no fluids!

Both mine were bottle fed. I don't think I ever looked at a clock. If they were hungry I gave them a bottle.

Your GP is talking bollocks - this is not unusual, they are not experts on newborn nutrition.

This is true, and worryingly health visitors all seem to say different things. Feed your baby when they are hungry, with milk basically. Babies are not greedy.

@OP please try not to worry. If your baby is hungry they're hungry. Even if he did become "overweight" he would take a growth spurt and things would be back in line again. Small babies are often hungry. DS is 99th percentile for height and 90th for weight so as you can imagine he eats like a horse.
None of us want our children to be overweight but we can have a much better impact on that by making sure they develop healthy eating habits when they start solids.
If it is particularly warm and you want to offer a very small amount of cooled boiled water that's ok but if he's looking for a proper feed then he can't have that much water anyway so it won't help.
Please try not to worry about him weighing too much. This won't set him up to be overweight in future, he's just making sure he has enough energy to grow.

Firstly formula fed babies can be given cool boiled water if it's hot and or they are constipated. As far as I'm aware this does not extend to watering down feeds.
Secondly I'm shocked by the Drs advice. Babies can and do jump between centile lines. This alone isn't cause for concern. Also babies vary massively in how much they drink and how often they drink milk. DD1 used to have 8oz bottles, can't remember the frequency, she was following a high percentile line but not overweight. DD3 is 7 months, breastfed and feeds every 3 hours typically - sometimes get to 4 hours if we get busy. No one has ever suggested that this is too frequent and we have been seeing paeds for something unrelated. Also surprised by the health visitor seeing you so regularly, I haven't seen ours since last year - no wonder you're getting so stressed.

Honestly, please don't worry about the line - it's normal for babies to vary and they generally settle along a rough one. It's a blunt tool.

Babies also have loads of growth spurts and phases of brain development where they will feed more and be hungrier. They grow more rapidly in the first year of their life than they do at any other point.

If he's hungry, don't worry about the time, just feed him. Some babies are hungrier than others as everyone has different appetites. They start taking on more milk during the day than night time during these months (which is good for your sleep!). If they have a full tummy they will refuse the bottle (or vomit it back up).

Babies weight fluctuates anyway. Weigh a baby before vs after a feed and there will be a big variation in weight. If they have a wee before being weighed then they will weigh less than they would have done if they hadn't.

I think you may be getting your baby weighed too frequently. If your baby is well then just stop with the weighing.

OP, please don’t withhold food from your poor baby. I’m sat here feeding my 14 week old DS and it’s making me so sad to think about.

I gave my DS small amounts of cooled boiled water on and off since birth. He suffered mild constipation and GP/HV both said this was fine... but it has no nutritional value! It should never be given in place of food to try and placate a hungry baby. Whilst it won’t make them spontaneously combust it will mess up their eating pattern.

Feed him!

Too much water for a baby can be fatal.

Please give this a read. Whilst a small amount just to help with dehydration in hot weather is deemed ok, topping up formula with water is absolutely not (I think there's even a warning about this on the back of formula tubs?)

Not having a go but just really wanted to make sure you were aware because of the dangers!

https://www.hellomotherhood.com/dangers-mixing-baby-formula-improperly-9612.html

You're not a bad mum at all, the fact you are worrying about it shows you care. However (as hard as it is) you need to try not to worry about feeding. Just feed on demand as much as baby needs, he can't overfeed at this age (it's not like you're giving him chocolate!)

There will come a time where you are equally worried that he is now not eating enough/as much as usual and not gaining weight as fast!

Babies appetites fluctuate so much and it's all normal

I can guarantee in a few weeks this worry will be long forgotten and you'll be worrying about something else! It's natural x

Baby had feeding issues at birth possibly due to being born early because of preeclampsia which then lead to a hospital admission a week after he was born. Since then I had midwife come to weigh him three times and then health visitor weight him twice, doctors weighed him in hospital and for checkups so he has been weighed a lot. Only recently has he put on a lot of weight. I’m sure anyone can understand me worrying about his weight. I have got the answers I need now I think people just repeating pointless comments. He eats enough. He is not being denied bottles. End of.

@Watermelonbaby1 that must have been so stressful. I have the opposite worries because DS was readmitted and on a feeding plan just after birth. I'm far from an expert but feel free to message me if you want to. Even without a premature baby to contend with feeding a newborn is stressful enough.

For Gods sake, what is wrong with some of you people. Babies do get thirsty. having a feed, ie food, is not like having a drink of water. We as adults get thirsty, as well as hungry.
I had my babies many many years ago, and was a nurse on a baby ward. We were taught to give them cooled boiled water.This was not instead of a feed. There is nothing worse than feeling thirsty.
My children have grown up to be healthy normal human beings.
Will someone come on to this thread and tell me where this ridiculous idea of not giving babies water tell my why, and where it originated from.

4-5 hours for an 11 week old is a long time to wait between feeds. Feed on demand and ignore whoever told you baby should be eating so and so amount at x y and z age!! If baby needs 7oz every 3 hours then give him/her it!!

Will someone come on to this thread and tell me where this ridiculous idea of not giving babies water tell my why, and where it originated from.

Health visitors here, numerous studies that state that babies don't need any hydration other than breast milk or formula unless it's extremely hot, that they don't need it the same way an older child or an adult would. Also formula is largely water, it's different for someone mainly eating solids and requiring liquid because they are thirsty .

@ozymandiusking I might be wrong but I don't think anyone is saying don't give boiled water, I think they're saying don't replace formula feeds with boiled water

Sandy, Thank you for your answer.

A bit is fine, it would take a lot of water to make a baby poorly from it, the main reason is that it will fill them up without providing the nutrients etc from the milk. Guidance etc changes all of the time, but having had DS in 2018 the HVs all said not to.

You are being to strict with a schedule. He's so little. Just feed him, he's hungry.

OP, if you're finding he's constantly hungry and getting heavier, I think you need to worry less about his weight and more about whether you have the next size up in clothes handy, because DS at about ten weeks went from his usual starvo self to full on I-have-never-been-fed mode for a couple of weeks, piled on the chub and then shot up out of every stitch of 0-3 overnight.

He's been doing it ever since, too. He was like a wee butterball at Christmas, now he's just legs everywhere, but at least I can just put him in shorts until September.

Honestly you shouldn't follow the guidelines to a t. Some babies go longer between feeds, others don't. I have 3 children, so I have experienced it all. With my first I literally had to wake him up for feeds, with my 2nd she was breastfed til 15, and it was constant feeding! My youngest was breastfed until 4 months, then I couldn't breastfeed anymore so had to switch to formula, and it was every 2 hours. Honestly feed the child when he wants, he's so young! My youngest used to wake up at 9 months for milk at night, and the HV told me to give him water instead! But I went against that, and just have him a nice bottle of warm milk and he went back to sleep. When it comes to feeding, don't listen to anyone else just feed the baby when he's hungry!

I don't even go 5 hours without something to eat or drink 😂

Babies are pretty good at self regulating. Don't worry about "averages", they are meaningless when applied to a specific baby at a specific moment in time. They're also not adjusted for different ethnic groups (shockingly).

Asking nicely OP - do you have any issues over food or weight yourself? You seem overly worried your baby will get fat.

Babies do get fat, then they stretch out again when they grow and so it goes on.

Oh and even if he's chunky, doesn't mean he will stay that way! My DS who is 7 used to have such chubby cheeks at 3 years old, it was cute now at 7 almost 8 he's so tall and slim, and so fussy when it comes to food which is a nightmare sometimes 🙄

I have not read (and will not be reading) the full thread but I'm very shocked by the amount of people saying no water. Of course feed on demand but babies can be simply thirsty too.

I think most people are not saying "no water at all"
The issue is that the baby is hungry and OP asked if she should top up formula with water to fill up the baby.

Not saying you can't give a small amount of water if it's very hot or they suffer with constipation but that's entirely another issue and not relevant to OPs problem....

Babies do get thirsty. having a feed, ie food, is not like having a drink of water. We as adults get thirsty, as well as hungry.

Really?? Well I’m no scientific expert myself, but I do know that breastmilk and formula are liquids... made of mostly water...
It’s hardly rocket science to understand why, bar very hot weather, it’s perfectly good hydration