Is it ok to give baby water?

[Rollermommy]

Ella is about 5 1/2 mos. old and we spend a lot of time outside and in the hot car. I do the best i can to keep her cool and shaded but there is just no getting around getting sweaty sometimes. I was wondering, is it ok to introduce a cup with a couple ounces of water just to cool her off. Sometimes i can tell she doesnt want to nurse but maybe just needs somethilng to drink:
And while i'm asking questions---are there any type of sippy cups out there that arent' plastic? What did grandma use?

[wombat]

I think it's ok to give a little but it's not necessary.

Sometimes i can tell she doesnt want to nurse but maybe just needs somethilng to drink

The foremilk she'd get is like water. I think of it as fortified water - water with antibodies and vitamins and minerals. I think in the heat, foremilk will keep her electrolytes (sodium and potassium) more balanced than plain water.

I've given a sippy cup of frozen slushy BM to 5 1/2 mo dd in the car when we couldn't keep stopping and our aircon didn't work. My dd likes to eat almost every hour and that turns our 3 hour trip to grandma's into a 6 hour ordeal.

[DaryLLL]

You can offer water to an older baby, starting at around the middle of the first year, or when you start her on table foods. (My 1st dd was interested in drinking water from a cup at 3 mos, but we didn't let her have all that much. She still nursed every hour.)

Bfed babies don't NEED water, even on the hottest days. Your milk is 88% water, and it is always pure.

But in a long car trip, to make it poss to stop less, or to cool off sore teething gums, or just for fun, yes, a liitle pure water in a cup shouldn't hurt, at around the middle of the first yr. Or in a sport bottle, or a cup with a straw. Just watch out that they don't start acting fussy at the breast after intro'ing a cup (as in nipple cnfusion). If they do, let them use a regular cup, you hold it for them.

Grandma used a plastic cup! Great-grandma, say pre-WWII, probably used an open tin or ceramic cup. I still have a cute little tin cup that was my mom's (she is 70), enameled orange, with a nursery rhyme and picture.

edited for clarity

[radish]

my ped says their systems (kidneys??) arent fully developed to filter the water...sumthin like that...

a little on gums, dry mouth is fine she says but not a ton

nak

[Quickening]

Water isn't good if you are exclusively breastfeeding still like radish's ped says, babies kidneys aren't fully developed and you can actually get water poisoning or damage the kidneys a little if you over load it with water. The young kidneys won't be able to process the water.

There is also the danger of water "filling up" your baby making her feel full - and she won't be hungry to nurse, not good especially with water not having the nutrients in it that she needs whereas breastmilk does!

If your baby wont feed from one breast, offer the other breast and if your baby wont take that, leave it and try again in a few minutes.

Even if they only nurse for a suck or two, that may be all the water they want!

I live in Australia here and it is VERY hot and even humid at times but my dd has never needed water or suffered from me not giving her water! Don't worry, keep bf'ing, your daughter will be okay! Keep her in cool cotton clothes too!

[DaryLLL]

Quickening, I see we have a difference of opinion. To clarify, I wasn't suggesting an exclusively bfed baby should be given oz after oz of water on a regular basis. Unlike artificially fed babies, they do not need water. But an oz here or there, on a very hot day, what is the harm? If it entertains them for a while? No danger in an oz, to either their kidneys or the mother's milk supply surely?

Is the baby seeming reluctant to nurse b/c she is too hot? I know I remember some of those hot days, and we had no AC and how I wished for a long tube to attach to my breast, so I could nurse without holding the hot hot baby! My kids would always nurse, tho.

[Rollermommy]

Yeah, i think she gets hot and doesnt want to be all snuggled up next to my sweaty body Thats probably why she's reluctant to nurse.

Well i tryed an oz. in a sippy cup today, and she hated it. Made a horrible face. But she did like chewing on the cup

[sadie_sabot]

At what point is water ok? My dd loves water, is always grabbing for our water bottles and cups (she also grabs for my coffee , but that's a diferent story), and we give her water in a sippy cup regularly, each time she has solids. she's almost 9 months old, and still mainly nurses (eats solids 1 or 2 times a day). i got all freaked out by reading something about water poisoning in "What to Expect the first Year", but it didn't say how much water is ok, and at what age, and other specific details, so if dd drinks more than an ounce or two i get all nervous. does anyone know the lowdown on this for an older babe?

[DaryLLL]

Kellymom comes thru again. Here's the lowdown on H2O.

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/so...ter-juice.html

[sadie_sabot]

huh. I can't get the link to work? says "file not found".

[DaryLLL]

Darn, you're right. I was able to get to it yesterday. She is re-organizing her site, it says.

Try this:

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/so...aby-water.html


Here is another link about water.

http://www.linkagesproject.org/download/FAQWater.PDF

It recs waiting til 6 mos to give any water (or anything other than breastmilk). It seems to be warning against water, b/c of the chances of the water source being impure, esp in "developing nations.".

But then it goes on to rec fruit juice (rather than water) as a fluid source after 6 mos, which is contradicted by other studies.

All we can do is read all the info we can and make the decision that seems right for our families.

[sadie_sabot]

thanks!