Can i give my 3 week old water
When can babies drink water?
When can babies drink water? | Pregnancy Birth and Baby beginning of content3-minute read
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If your baby is under 6 months old, they only need to drink breastmilk or infant formula. From 6 months of age, you can give your baby small amounts of water, if needed, in addition to their breastmilk or formula feeds.
Why is water not suitable for babies younger than 6 months?
Before 6 months, breastmilk or formula is both food and drink for your baby. It is all they need, even in hot weather. Giving your baby water may mean they drink less breastmilk or formula. This can put them at risk of not getting enough milk or formula to grow properly. Giving your baby a lot of water or excessively diluted formula over a short time can also make them very unwell.
When can I give water to my baby?
If your baby is around 6 months old, you can offer small amounts of cooled boiled tap water but you should not replace their breastmilk or formula feeds. Breastmilk or formula should still be their main drink up to 12 months of age.
After 12 months, their main drink should be water and cow's milk or breastmilk. You can offer water or milk in a cup. There's no need to boil tap water once your baby has reached 12 months.
If your baby has just started on solids, start with a few sips of water from a cup when they are eating. This is so they can learn about drinking from a cup and it can also help prevent constipation due to the increased bulk of their poo. The aim is to get them used to drinking from a cup as this will be their main way of drinking from 12 months on.
What about in hot weather?
In hot weather, it is important to offer more frequent breastfeeds or bottle-feeds if your baby is under 6 months. Do not offer water unless recommended by a doctor.
Your baby may want to drink more than usual but for shorter periods. If you breastfeed, you should also make sure you drink enough water.
To make breastfeeding more comfortable for you and your baby in hot weather:
- place a towel, sheet or pillowcase between yourself and your baby
- lie down to breastfeed to reduce skin contact
Your baby is properly hydrated (getting enough fluids) if they have 6 to 8 pale wet nappies over 24 hours.
What if my baby has a fever?
If your baby has a fever, is under 6 months and is breastfed, you may need to offer extra breastfeeds. If they are under 6 months and formula-fed, you can offer smaller amounts of formula more frequently. Do not offer water unless advised by a doctor.
If your baby is older than 6 months, continue to breastfeed or bottle feed. You can offer water in between feeds. The most important thing to check is whether your child is getting enough fluids.
Call Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on 1800 882 436 to speak to a maternal child health nurse for advice and support.
What about other drinks?
Fruit juice, soft drinks and cordial are not suitable for babies under 12 months old.
Caffeinated drinks such as tea, coffee and energy drinks — and, of course, alcohol — are not suitable for children of any age.
Sources:
Australian Breastfeeding Association (Keeping baby cool in the heat), National Health and Medical Research Council (Infant Feeding Guidelines), NSW Health (Babies and children in hot weather), Raising Children Network (Fever), Raising Children Network (Healthy drinks for kids and teenagers), Royal Children's Hospital (Guide to foods for baby’s first year), World Health Organization (Why can’t we give water to a breastfeeding baby before 6 months, even when it is hot?)Learn more here about the development and quality assurance of healthdirect content.
Last reviewed: July 2020
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Related pages
- Healthy drinks for kids
- Feeding your baby with formula
- Breastfeeding your baby
- Balancing introducing solids with milk feeds
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Why Can't Babies Have Water? About the Risks and When It's OK
It’s a bright, sunny day outside, and your whole family is feeling the heat and guzzling water. Your newborn surely needs some hydration, too, right?
Yes, but not of the H2O variety. Your little one — if under 6 months old — should be receiving both nutrition and hydration from breast milk or formula, not water.
You probably know this, but you might not know why. It’s because babies’ bodies aren’t suited for water until several months after birth. Tiny tummies and developing kidneys put them at risk for both nutrient loss and water intoxication. Here’s the scoop.
Baby tummies are quite small. In fact, at birth, a baby’s belly only holds about 1 to 2 teaspoons, or 5 to 10 milliliters (mL)! Clearly, it does empty fast — which is why your babe needs so many feedings in a 24-hour period — but you want to fill that little tummy with nutrient-rich breast milk or formula.
So it makes sense that one risk of giving your baby water is that you’ll be filling their belly with a really quite useless substance (at least to a baby) and leaving no room for those vitamins, minerals, fat, and calories so crucial for growth and development. This can cause serious problems.
Baby’s tummy does grow over the first 6 months of life, but it’s pretty gradual. By the time they’re 1 month old, their stomach capacity is about 2.
7 to 5 ounces (80 to 150 mL). By 6 months — when you can introduce little sips of water — they can generally hold about 7 ounces (207 mL) at a time.
Even between 6 months and 1 year of age, the amount of water you give your baby should be very limited. It’s more for them to get the taste and experience of water rather than for any real medical purpose like hydration. After all, formula and breast milk are very hydrating — and also give your little one what they need to grow and thrive.
Another very serious risk of giving babies water before they’re ready is water intoxication.
Hold the front door. Water — toxic?
Absolutely. In fact, water can be toxic to anyone if drunk in large quantities. But unsurprisingly, “large” is very relative to size and age here. An adult with healthy kidneys, for example, would have to drink several liters in a short period of time to get to the point of water intoxication.
That said, it does happen to people, particularly soldiers and athletes, who tend to be in situations where they can become dehydrated quickly and then overcompensate.
In short, when the kidneys are given more water than they can handle, the excess water ends up in your bloodstream. This dilutes the fluid in your bloodstream and lowers the concentration of important electrolytes, like sodium. Too much dilution and you’re at risk for hyponatremia, which literally means too little (hypo) salt in the blood (natremia).
And baby kidneys can’t handle as much water as adult kidneys — not by a long shot. In addition to being much smaller than an adult’s kidneys, a baby’s kidneys are also not as developed. So they can’t process as much water at a time.
So giving a baby younger than 6 months even a moderate amount of water in a short period of time can lead to hyponatremia, which at its most dangerous can cause brain swelling and even death. In fact, because the brain is still developing as well, the swelling can happen more easily in an infant with hyponatremia than in an adult with hyponatremia.
A dangerous equation
Remember: Tiny tummy + immature kidneys + developing brain = Avoid giving babies water until they are 6 months of age
The thing is, most parents aren’t filling bottles with water and giving them to their infants.
The risk comes from things that you might not even give a second thought.
For example, while many swimming schools don’t offer lessons to babies under 6 months, some will start them as young as 4 months. There’s nothing inherently wrong with introducing a baby to the pool if it’s done safely — but without the proper precautions, babies can swallow pool water and experience water intoxication as a result.
Another seemingly harmless act that can lead to trouble is diluting formula or breast milk. Going back to our hydration scenario, it might seem to make sense to mix more water into your baby’s formula powder on a hot day. But don’t do this — it deprives baby of nutrients and can also lead to them getting more water than their kidneys can handle.
Because formula and breast milk are calorie rich, they stay in the body longer rather than overwhelming the kidneys. As a nice side effect, staying in the body longer also means they’re good at keeping your little one hydrated — no extra water needed.
At around 6 months of age, it’s OK to introduce small amounts of water — we’re talking on the teaspoon or tablespoon scale, not the full-bottle scale. It’s a good time to start introducing the concept that thirst can be quenched with water, but your baby’s main source of hydration (not to mention nutrition) should continue to be breast milk or formula.
Most babies will see water as a sort of novelty at this age and still prefer their milk. Some might even balk at the taste and make a face, especially if they were expecting something else! That’s OK — this will change.
By 1 year old, your baby — who’s just about a toddler, if you can believe it! — can have water in larger quantities as they want it, along with cow’s milk and a nutritious diet.
Related: When can baby drink water?
Talk to your pediatrician if you have any concerns about your baby’s hydration or their readiness for water. Depending on if your baby was born prematurely or has certain health conditions, your timeline for introducing water may vary.
In addition, if your baby shows any of these signs of water intoxication, head to the hospital immediately:
- inconsolable crying
- vomiting
- lethargy
- seizures
- tremors
Fortunately, parents are usually aware — by word of mouth or from their pediatrician — that they shouldn’t give young babies water. But now you also know the why behind the guideline.
How much water to give a newborn: what pediatricians say
- Water filters
- Articles
10/23/2017 28889
Together with breast milk, a newborn receives not only nutrients, but also moisture and water. Therefore, in the first months of life, the baby needs only mother's milk to maintain the water balance of his small body.
But it will take quite a bit of time and the baby will already need ordinary water. Today we will talk about how much water to give a newborn - after all, this question interests many mothers.
Immediately, we note that if the baby is not yet three months old, he does not need to give water. Naturally, if there are no medical recommendations. But for children who are already four months old, you can give water completely freely! However, it is important to know how much water to give your baby and how this can affect the feeding process. We will talk about this below. And here it should be noted that at home it is extremely important to have equipment for clean water - for example, water coolers that are simple and functional.
How much water can be given to babies: a detailed explanation
It is best to drink water between feedings. Then the water will not affect the child's appetite. And the kid himself will be happy to absorb some water. How much water can you give a baby? Here everything is individual.
After all, every person has their own needs. And children are no exception.
Water requirements depend on the following factors:
- baby's weight;
- from his age;
- from the season;
- from the region of residence, etc.
According to medical calculations, a healthy baby needs 100 ml of fluid per day per 1 kilogram of body weight. But the key word here is "liquid"! That is, taking into account breast milk or formula. Therefore, only 30 to 100 ml per day remains for clean water! And not based on a kilogram of weight, but in total!
What kind of water to give babies?
Above we told how much water a newborn needs - this information will be useful to all mothers. But it is equally important to find out what kind of water should be given to the crumbs! For example, from the tap is not recommended categorically. Even if you boil it.
First, there is nothing useful in boiled water. Secondly, there will still be a number of contaminants characteristic of the utility pipeline - for example, mechanical particles (sand, soil, etc.
), they may be invisible to the eye, but they are there!
Another option is to give special bottled water. Precisely special - children's. It is guaranteed clean and has a normal level of mineralization, suitable specifically for the child's body. But children should not buy ordinary mineral water - it contains too much mineral microelements.
And the best option is to install a water purification filter, which you can buy on our website. Among the many models, the reverse osmosis treatment system stands out. By eliminating pollutants literally at the ionic level, the system prepares the purest water. Which can be given even to children.
In addition, you can choose a model that has a mineralizer - this is an additional cartridge that provides water with a natural balance of trace elements necessary for the normal development of the baby.
How much water to give a newborn: in conclusion
Some mothers, in order to accustom the baby to water, add a little sugar or juice to it.
But this is wrong. Firstly, after that, the baby does not want to drink ordinary, unsweetened water. Secondly, sugar negatively affects the formation of teeth. Now you know how much water to drink for a newborn and you can ensure the normal balance of fluid in the baby's body! And you can not do without a fine filter, which will remove all kinds of impurities.
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Should I give my child bottled water?
Many young mothers are interested in the question - is it necessary to give water to a newborn baby? In this case, the doctor gives a variety of advice - some argue that breastfed babies do not need additional water, others assure the opposite.
To get an answer to this question, it is necessary to understand in more detail how and when the baby should be watered, and what water can be used for this.
Mother's breast milk, which the child receives from the first days of life, is both food and drink for him - it is known that on 90% it consists of water. Thus, the breastfed baby receives all the amount of fluid he needs. Thanks to special enzymes, mother's milk has a beneficial effect on the digestion process. In addition, the female body is able to independently adapt to the needs of the baby, regulating the composition of breast milk. When the baby needs more liquid, he begins to breastfeed more, thus receiving more foremilk (it is less saturated), which not only quenches thirst well, but also restores electrolyte balance.
If we take into account all of the above, we can decide that the baby does not need ordinary water as a drink at all. But in fact, sometimes it is necessary. However, giving water to a child who is not yet three months old is possible only on the recommendation of a pediatrician.
Babies who are already 4 months old can drink water - this will not affect the breastfeeding process in any way. There are absolutely no contraindications to water if the baby drinks it with pleasure. On the contrary, you should be wary of a lack of fluids, which can cause much more harm to the child. We must not forget that newborns have a very fast metabolism, due to which the loss of moisture can be very significant.
Water for baby during breastfeeding
You can give your baby water from about 4-5 months. It is best to do this not during feeding, but between them. When the baby feels thirsty, he will gladly drink water from the bottle. As for the norm of fluid for a child, this is a very individual question. As a rule, pediatricians advise giving babies about 100 mg of liquid per 1 kg of body weight, while the liquid includes breast milk. Water in this case will be from 30 to 70 ml.
The baby can drink water from an ordinary bottle with a nipple, you can also use a spoon for this (it will help to accustom the baby to complementary foods, which will be needed soon).
However, the main rule to remember is that the baby must drink water voluntarily, in no case should he be forced to do so.
Mixed or formula-fed baby water
Artificial feeding has significant differences from natural feeding. The fact is that infant formula contains much more protein than mother's milk. A formula-fed baby has a special need for extra fluids. If you constantly give him a rich nutrient mixture, this can cause constipation. The additional water received by the baby will improve his well-being and contribute to the normal emptying of the intestines.
If the child is on mixed or artificial feeding, then you can start giving water to him a little earlier - already from 1 or 2 months of age. In this case, the water temperature should be cooler than the temperature of the nutrient mixture. Pediatricians assure that babies who are on artificial or mixed feeding definitely need water.
When can newborns be given water?
You can give your baby a drink immediately after eating.
You can also drink it in between feedings. It is important to remember that babies have a very small stomach in volume, and they will not physically be able to drink a lot of water. It is enough to give him 2-3 teaspoons of water. Gradually, this dose can be slightly increased.
There are situations in which the need for additional liquid for the baby increases dramatically - for example, when the child has been in a room that is too dry for a long time, or has become slightly overheated. Some parents are too afraid of catching a cold while bathing, and maintain a high temperature in his room - because of this, the humidity in the room decreases, and the baby's body is dehydrated. To prevent this from happening, the air temperature in the baby's room should be maintained at 20 degrees, and the humidity should be between 50 and 70%.
If the air in the room is too dry, the child begins to breathe rapidly, swallowing becomes difficult and colic begins. With overheating, which most often occurs in summer, the baby sweats more, as a result of which the body loses moisture.
Signs of dehydration can be signs such as dry skin and mucous membranes, as well as infrequent urination. Pediatricians agree that during illness, newborns need to be given water - for example, with colic, or at elevated temperature. The water in this case should be warm.
Water is necessary for a child in such cases:
- at high temperatures - you can give him a little drink from a spoon, and just moisten his lips with water;
- with diarrhea - you need to give the child a little drink, after which it is imperative to show it to the pediatrician;
- when there is fever without fever - water can be given to the baby in a small amount;
- for constipation - the liquid will help to empty the intestines without discomfort for the child;
- with vomiting - water will prevent dehydration and cleanse the stomach;
- for hiccups - water will relieve spasm of the diaphragm, which happened from hypothermia, and also help to get rid of excess air in the stomach.
What kind of water should a baby drink?
Some parents are sure that only boiled water can be given to babies. Actually it is not. When water is boiled, not all bacteria die in it. And in the composition of such water there are chloride compounds that are extremely harmful to babies. Water obtained from open sources can be no less dangerous, as it contains bacteria from the soil and nitrates. In no case should children be given carbonated or mineral medicinal water with a complex chemical composition. Water purified by home filters is also not suitable for babies.
Where can you get water that will not harm the child? It is best to buy it in a pharmacy. Special water for babies is labeled on the bottle, it contains the optimal amount of minerals for the baby. Water from the pharmacy does not need to be boiled, but after opening it can be stored for no more than a day, and only in the refrigerator. It is best to immediately pour such water into a glass container with a tight-fitting lid.
Which water purification methods can be used for a baby?
The most economical and easiest option to provide your baby with high-quality drinking water is to buy a special "children's" water filter. This can be a jug-type device - it is inexpensive, it is very easy to use such a filter, and the degree of water purification is very high - the device effectively removes chlorine, bacteria, pesticides and particles of mechanical impurities from ordinary tap water. For the manufacture of such filters, only high-quality safe plastic is used, which is approved by pediatricians. Water purified in this way can be used not only for feeding the baby, but also for preparing various decoctions and infant formulas.
Can I give my baby water during hiccups?
What is hiccups? This is an involuntary contraction of the muscles of the diaphragm and larynx. Babies are especially susceptible to hiccups, since their diaphragm muscles are characterized by increased excitability.
Hypothermia, air entering the stomach, nervous overexcitation and accumulation of gases in the intestines often lead to hiccups.
As soon as a child has hiccups, you need to immediately eliminate its cause. If the baby is cold, it needs to be warmed up. In order for air to come out of the stomach, the baby should be held in a “column”. A few sips of warm water will also help to cope with hiccups.
It is necessary to give water to a child with hiccups, as this measure will quickly eliminate the cause of discomfort.
If you do everything right and give water to the baby only when he really needs it, then there will be no harm - on the contrary, the child will receive the necessary amount of fluid for the normal functioning of the body.
Information about higher organizations
Ministry of Health of the Russian FederationOfficial portal of the Mayor and the Government of MoscowDepartment of labor and social protection of the population of the city of Moscow: on Mondays from 15.
00 to 18.00Department of health of MoscowDepartment of RosZdravNadzor for the city of Moscow and the Moscow region: Mon - Thu: 9:00 - 17:45, Fri: 9:00 - 16:30, Sat - Sun: days off Office of Rospotrebnadzor for the city of MoscowFKU Main Bureau of Medical and Social Expertise for the city of Moscow: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 8.30 to 17.30 .Directorate for coordinating the activities of medical organizations DZMMosvolunter. Responsible person for cooperation with volunteer organizations: Adylov Seyran Midatovich, tel. +7 499-250-01-75
Information for the public
Assessment of the quality of servicesIndependent assessment of the quality of services provided by medical organizationsQuestionnaire for assessing the quality of services provided by medical organizations on an outpatient basisDrugsCrowdsourcing projects of the Government of MoscowAmbulance and Emergency Medical Service in the City of MoscowAssistance Center for Medical WorkersMoscow City Compulsory Medical Insurance FundInsurance companiesFederal budgetary healthcare institution " Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in Moscow "Official resource of the Healthy Russia program.
