Do You give your babe water with solid meals?

[Jenine]

I've been using Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food book as a guideline for feeding DD solids, she is 8.5 months old. She recommends giving baby water with meals to ensure proper kidney function and I agree that it's good to offer liquids with the solid foods, but I'm not sure about the water. It seems that breast milk would be better, but I HATE pumping! Especially when its for just an oz. or two, cleaning that thing is just a pain (hand pump). But DD's wellness trumps any annoyance for sure.

What do you give your LO with solid meals?

[Kmama2]

Originally Posted by Jenine

I've been using Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food book as a guideline for feeding DD solids, she is 8.5 months old. She recommends giving baby water with meals to ensure proper kidney function and I agree that it's good to offer liquids with the solid foods, but I'm not sure about the water. It seems that breast milk would be better, but I HATE pumping! Especially when its for just an oz. or two, cleaning that thing is just a pain (hand pump). But DD's wellness trumps any annoyance for sure.

What do you give your LO with solid meals?

Water. Ds is almost 9 months.. he doesn't really eat meals- just bites here and there but we do give him a sippy of water so he can learn how to use the cup and learn to drink water. If I want him to have breastmilk with a meal I will just nurse him before hand and then offer solids. No way I am pumping to offer milk with meals. No necessary in my opinion. But then again I make sure that food before 12 months is mostly for learning purposes and not to get full. We just give ds tastes and bites and not meals that way he isn't really replacing breastmilk per say.

[alegna]

Water. I never pumped and neither of mine would take expressed milk at all.

-Angela

[texaspeach]

ds is almost 10 months old. like the PP he just eats bites of solid foods (we do BLW). we offer water in a cup after meals, mostly so he can learn to use a cup. no way am I pumping to give him milk in a cup. most of the time he doesn't even drink the water he just spills it everywhere

[Aufilia]

Water. But if we're out somewhere and I didn't bring his cup, I just nurse him and don't worry about it. He doesn't eat terribly much solid food yet anyhow. For whatever reason, DS thinks drinking water is really fun (even though he won't take expressed milk for anything!).

[sosurreal09]

DD LOVES water shes 9 m/o and drinks it from my SS thermos mostly but will drink from a cup. she eats a good amount of solids BLW but still nursing like crazy lol 6xday 2-4x night. she eats 3 solid meals a day but they are VERY small like the size of her palm (they say thats a good portion for people in general)

i gave her some juice to TRY before and she hated it! shes not much for sweets but shes a veggie fanatic!(you should see her crying for the broccoli lol)

[kismetbaby]

Wish I could get my LO to eat broccoli!

I always offer water at meals. . .and often in btw meals too, especially if we are out and about and it it hot. My DS loves water. He has a Klean Kanteen sippy and loves it. He probably drinks 4-6oz of water a day. But he nurses plenty as well and doesn't eat a whole lot at meals. One of the reasons I started offering water was that he sweats quite a bit and was getting constipated (more due to hot weather than to what he was eating I believe). I know he gets plenty of BM so I don't mind offering water too and I like establishing good water drinking habits!

[Norasmomma]

My son who is 9 months signs for water when he's thirsty, so he gets it.

[MsVyky]

We give a sippy of water with her solids. She LOVES it because it's something different and she wears most of it.

She's still nursing at least 10x in a 24 hour period at 8 months

[miami mommy]

My DS loves water! He started to sorta ask for water when he was 5 mo. He noticed me drinking water and he stuck his arms out and made some sounds of excitement. So when I feed him solid food, I offer my cup of water to him and if he's thirsty, he pulls it to his mouth (while I hold it) and drinks.

[texaspeach]

Originally Posted by miami mommy

My DS loves water! He started to sorta ask for water when he was 5 mo. He noticed me drinking water and he stuck his arms out and made some sounds of excitement. So when I feed him solid food, I offer my cup of water to him and if he's thirsty, he pulls it to his mouth (while I hold it) and drinks.

ds always wants my cup too, but he sticks his hand in it. I think he's been watching the cat

[sunnygir1]

Why don't you think water is good? Drinking water is a very healthy practice, and if the baby is old enough for solids, then she is also old enough for water -- in my opinion. I give ds water both with food and without. I don't necessarily give it to him every time I give him something to eat, but I often do. He's 9 months old, and as a pp said, he gets plenty of breastmilk too.

[lisalu100]

I think that BM is the perfect balance of water and other nutrients. If you are offering solids, I feel water should usually be offered too, since you need to balance the nutrients from the food with water. I'm not explaining it too well, but I guess I think of BM as a food, not a drink. I like to follow DD's lead, and she loves water.

[star*mora]

water or smoothies that i make with coconut milk, avocado and whatever fruit i have around, with a dash of powdered acidophilus. i have a very skinny bub so am always trying to get nutrient rich and healthy fat rich food in (he's 16lbs at 9mths and just over 29 inches long)

[Hannah'sMommy]

We give DD (10 months) water in a sippy with meals, especially when she has protein in her meal. It helps avoid constipation. She's prone to constipation when she has chicken or other proteins, so we don't give her very much, but water plain or some with a little juice to help keep things moving.

[Jenine]

Originally Posted by sunnygir1

Why don't you think water is good?

I don't think it's bad necessarily, I'm just thinking in terms of nutrient density. A drink of BM is more nutrient dense than water, I just wasn't sure if it was too early to replace the BM with the h2o. I've been giving her water since my OP and she's loving it.