Adding water to EBM for 15mth old - Page 2

[sunnysideup]

Originally Posted by BakerALM

I find this thought odd. Once the liquids hit the stomach your body cannot tell if they went down together or separate.

Unfortunately, babies do get malnourished if fed watered down milk or formula regularly, but feeding water separately does not cause malnutrition. This is because baby is filled up by the watered down milk or formula.

Originally Posted by pumpkinhead

I think it's just fine to water the milk a 15 month old is drinking. Our own bodies do this depending on the weather. For example, the milk of a mother living in 100 degree weather will contain more water than the milk of someone living in a colder, northern climate. If it is a hot, humid day, any given mother's milk will contain more water to adjust to the baby's needs.

When mother's body makes the milk with a higher water content, it is still perfectly proportioned for baby's needs with the right electrolyte balance and proteins.

[pumpkinhead]

Originally Posted by sunnysideup

Unfortunately, babies do get malnourished if fed watered down milk or formula regularly, but feeding water separately does not cause malnutrition. This is because baby is filled up by the watered down milk or formula.

When mother's body makes the milk with a higher water content, it is still perfectly proportioned for baby's needs with the right electrolyte balance and proteins.

Well, the point is that it has a higher water content, so everything else is the same, but there's more water. As long as it's not plain water and contains electrolytes, it shouldn't be an issue for a 15 month old who is taking in things other than breastmilk . And they do advise watering formula if a formula fed baby is gaining weight too rapidly and seems hungry all the time. Too much formula is hard on the kidneys.

[BakerALM]

Originally Posted by sunnysideup

Unfortunately, babies do get malnourished if fed watered down milk or formula regularly, but feeding water separately does not cause malnutrition. This is because baby is filled up by the watered down milk or formula.

Ok I am still confused. :How is this situation different if the total quanities for both cases are the same...1)feed baby EBM then feed of water, 2) feed EBM with added water. Please explain.
It seems to me that the point you should be making is that malnutrition can happen in either case.

Originally Posted by sunnysideup

When mother's body makes the milk with a higher water content, it is still perfectly proportioned for baby's needs with the right electrolyte balance and proteins.

:

Originally Posted by pumpkinhead

Have you tried a nipple shield or tried to get her to latch on when she wakes at night?

You name it i've tried it! But I was totally uneducated when it came to BFing when she was first born. I trusted the so called experts and wow did they do me & my DD wrong. We had problems, big ones but from what I know now about how to hsndle complicated BFing situations I truly believe we could have overcome all our problems."Ahhhhhhh, nothing to do about it now."

Originally Posted by DoubleLove

I just wanted to give you some . I cannot imagine how difficult it must be when she tells you to just pump her some more, but you're breasts are already empty. Oh, more

Its like you just wish we could reason with all our EP'd for babies, like its on tap, warm and ready all the time and there'd be plenty of it if you'd just nurse from tap.

Thanks for the hugs! It is really hard on a daily basis since I spend 2hrs a day pumping. Its like 2hrs a day I get to dwell on the mistakes I made when she was born. I mean at the time I had no idea, I just thought BFing would come "naturally", wow was I wrong!!!:

I do try to reason with her and have even got her to take a lick but she LOVES her "bah". I think about it now as an extension of me. Only her imediate family get to feed her a "bah", my mom (who lives with us) and my hubbie. I get really offended when others ask to feed her especially when I am around, its like if I was BFing from the tap that would not even be an option while I was in the room.

Thanks galls!

[Ruthla]

I'd rather offer her plain water in a bottle or a cup rather than diluting the ebm.

[bri276]

ah, I didn't realize the sleeping improved when you took out dairy! in that case, not only would I donate all the dairy tainted ebm, I don't think I'd even let her look at a picture of a cow in a book! (I say this as someone who didn't get to sleep until past 3:30 last night, and only then because DH got up with her!) ugh. I *almost* wish dd's sleep issues were caused by allergy so there could be something I could do about it. sigh.

yk, I was reading an article the other day about the myth of 8 glasses of water a day which talked about how humans get a lot of water out of food. if she eats lots of watery fruit like watermelon, pear, oranges, etc that should help quench her thirst. I'm going through a similar issue because we've cut down Jessica's milk intake very drastically, and she'll only drink about an ounce of water once a day. I have always been very anti-juice, but for some reason I view OJ differently- the real stuff, not Sunny D, so I give her like 1 oz OJ mixed with 2 oz water and then she'll chug the whole thing. between that, the milk, and a bunch of fruit, she gets enough. at least, she has plenty of wet dipes so it has to be coming from somewhere, lol.