Can I give baby tap water?

[gerbo]

Anyone clear this up - when can I stop giving cooled boiled water and just give tap water with meals? (dd is almost 9 months and enjoys solids.)

yes you can give water straight from the tap

I always thought it was 12 months. That's when u stop sterilising too...?

Surely not? Otherwise why sterilise??!

Have things changed that dramatically since last time I had a baby (six years or so ago..)??!

I would say boiled, cooled water Gerbo.

Do you really need to sterilize until 12 months?

and I was certainly giving my babies sips of tap water from 7 or 8 months

I gave my dd tap water when she started to drink half the contents of the bath every night (around 7 months).

oops
I've been giving tap water since I started offering drink, at about 7 months

Many people don't sterilise at all (RTKM has a very long, long-running thread about it).

And really, once they start shoving things in their mouths there's precious little point in sterilising things anyway. Or in boiling water, for that matter.

from 6 months tap water is fine, deffo.

I stopped sterilising and gave filtered tap water from about 7 or 8 months.

the 'official' advice is tap water as a drink from 6 months but boiled water for formula to kill the bacteria in the formula. You are also supposed to sterilise bottles and teats till 1 year also due to bacteria in formula but plates, bowls, spoons, etc are ok to be washed in hot soapy water.

oh yes that's right, water for formula to be boiled and cooled to 70degs.