Can you feed a newborn 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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When Is It Safe to Give Water to Infants?
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
In this Article
- How Infants Stay Hydrated
- When Babies Can Start Drinking Water
- Making Sure Water Is Baby-Safe
- Risks of Water for Infants
- Water as Your Baby Grows
If you have a baby, you’re probably concerned about making sure they have enough water and nutrients to stay healthy.
Even though your baby drinks breast milk or formula, is that enough to keep them hydrated? Yes. Here’s what you need to know.
How Infants Stay Hydrated
As an adult, water is the most hydrating thing you can drink. It quenches your thirst and helps all of your systems stay balanced.
But children under a year old don’t need water like adults do. It can actually be dangerous for them. Babies get all their hydration from breast milk or formula.
When Babies Can Start Drinking Water
A baby should drink only breast milk or formula until they’re six months old. It has all the hydration and nutrition they need in the early months.
Even when you start giving them purees or table food at around 6 months of age, breast milk and formula are still more important than water. But you can begin to introduce it.
When babies are between 6 and 12 months of age, breast milk or formula continues to be a priority over water. But if you offer breast milk or formula first, you can then offer water, 2-3 ounces at a time.
At this age, 4-8 ounces a day of water is enough. More than that may lead to water intoxication.
Making Sure Water Is Baby-Safe
Before using water to mix baby formula or offering a baby water for the first time, consider testing your tap water. While tap water may have fluoride that helps prevent tooth decay, it could also contain levels of lead that are unsafe for babies.
Most tap water in the U.S. is safe, with a few exceptions:
- If you have untested well water.
- If your water source has recently been contaminated.
- If your baby has low immunity.
If you’re worried about lead exposure and traces of chemicals in your water, install a filtration system or use distilled water instead which can be easily purchased.
Considerations for mixing formula with water. If you use tap water to mix formula, mix only one bottle at a time. Don’t use tap water to mix formula in bulk amounts.
A similar rule applies to water that you’ve boiled.
Refrigerate boiled water within an hour, and throw it away if you don’t use it within 24 hours. Always allow the water to cool completely before mixing the formula. Hot water can burn your baby.
When you purchase formula, carefully follow the instructions on the container for mixing it with water. Instructions vary by brand. This will ensure your baby gets the right amount of nutrients and hydration.
Mixing in too much formula may lead to constipation or dehydration. Mixing in too little formula may lead to malnutrition or water intoxication.
Risks of Water for Infants
Drinking too much water at a young age is very dangerous. Water causes an imbalance in sodium levels that may lead to:
- Seizures
- Brain damage
- Coma
- Death
Water intoxication leads to changes in behavior such as:
- Confusion
- Drowsiness
- Muscle cramps and twitching
- Nausea and vomiting
- Difficulty breathing
- Weakness
Watch for signs of water intoxication and call your doctor immediately if you have any concerns.
Water as Your Baby Grows
Between the ages of 1 and 3, your toddler needs 4 cups of liquid per day. This is a transitional period that should include both water and breastmilk or formula. The older your child gets, the more water they need. There are several ways you can encourage your older child to drink enough water.
Flavor water with fresh fruit. Water is healthier than juice since many children’s juices are full of sugar. If your child prefers the taste of juice, use fresh fruit to flavor their water. Lemon, berries, mint, and cucumber are great additions.
Offer more fruits and vegetables. Encourage your child to eat more fruits and vegetables with high water content. These help them stay hydrated without forcing them to drink more water than they want. Hydrating vegetables include cucumber, tomato, zucchini, celery, and iceberg lettuce. Hydrating fruits include strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, cantaloupe, and grapefruit.
Make creative ice cubes and popsicles. Puree your fruit of choice with water and freeze it into ice cubes or popsicle molds.
Provide special drinkware. Use a fancy cup with favorite colors or characters. When you find ways to make water fun, your child is more likely to enjoy drinking it.
Water while breastfeeding - is it necessary to give water to a newborn
Disputes about whether a breastfed baby should be supplemented with water, are for many years. In fact, it is quite easy to understand this issue.
Spring water Valio still, 1.5 l Read more
What should be remembered first of all? Your task is to prevent dehydration of the baby's body, the child should in no case experience a lack of water, in which the developing child's body needs more than an adult. It is important to understand whether the received mother's milk is enough, or whether there is a need to supplement the child additionally.
Nature made sure that the newborn did not experience a shortage of fluid. Mother's milk is almost 90% water. Thus, on breastfeeding, the baby receives both drink and food at the same time. Pay attention to how the baby is attached to the breast. If literally for a few minutes, it means that he just wanted to drink. The first milk is more liquid, but what comes later (“hind”) is thick and nutritious. If breastfeeding is well established, the baby is healthy and active, the first months of the need for supplementation may not arise at all.
Factors indicating that the baby does not have enough water supplied with mother's milk: rare urination (up to 6 months of age, the baby should write 20-25 times a day), dry mucous membranes, tongue, skin. Special cases - malaise of the child. When an infant has diarrhea or a fever (and consequently increased sweating), he needs more water. In principle, milk can also fill this need of the child's body, but this does not always happen.
You do not need to pour water into the baby, but you must offer it, if the child does not need additional liquid, he will simply refuse it.
Pediatricians do not recommend giving water while breastfeeding unnecessarily for a number of reasons:
-
The baby has a very small stomach, there is still not enough room for both milk and water. The child may not be getting enough nutrients because his stomach is full.
-
For good milk production, it is important to put the baby to the breast as often as possible. Do not replace these moments with additional soldering.
-
It is easier for a baby to suck on a bottle nipple than a breast. Therefore, the baby may begin to refuse feeding.
-
The extra water puts more stress on the baby's urinary system, making it difficult for the kidneys to handle both milk and water.
All of the above applies to babies up to six months.
As soon as complementary foods appear in the life of the baby, water should also appear in the diet. Pediatricians recommend using special baby water for this. No need to give boiled, it does not contain important trace elements. And once again we remind you - do not force the baby to drink, just offer. Some babies don't need water until 9.-12 months, getting the required amount of liquid from milk.
#PROMO_BLOCK#
In order for milk to meet all the needs of the child, it is important for a woman to drink enough water herself. In the body of a young mother, 1-1.5 milk is produced daily, which means that your usual drinking regimen should increase by 1 liter of fluid. Choose only quality water, such as Valio spring water from Finland* with a balanced mineral composition and pure taste.
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whether a baby should be given water during breastfeeding and artificial feeding, how much water a child can drink
The birth of a baby always involves a lot of questions from parents. Some of them are, of course, related to proper nutrition. And almost always, the first thing moms ask is whether it is necessary to give water during breastfeeding.
Will it harm digestion and stool? And if supplemented, then with what water, how often and from what? Let's take a look at all the nuances in order.
Contents: Hide
- When a baby needs water
- What are the dangers of drinking water early
- General advice on supplementation
When a baby needs water
he is breastfed, with normal assimilation of mother's milk and regular weight gain, water is not required. Mother's milk quenches thirst and protects against dehydration. However, there are doctors who express a different opinion from this. So, when should you supplement your newborn?
• With artificial and mixed feeding. Mixtures, even as close as possible in composition to mother's milk, are absorbed longer, and water helps their absorption. Therefore, the use of water in this case is mandatory.
• When breastfeeding with insufficient lactation. Unfortunately, it happens that the mother's milk is not enough for the baby.
If the baby cries often, does not gain weight, supplement the baby with water and immediately contact the pediatrician about mixed feeding or a complete transition to the mixture.
• In hot weather. When it's hot, fluid leaves the body much faster, and feeding a child with milk all the time means forcing him to overeat. Water in this case is your salvation.
• For hiccups. As you know, water helps to cope with hiccups. This is true not only for an adult, but also for a baby.
• For vomiting and diarrhea. They wash fluid out of the child's body, which threatens with dehydration. If you experience these problems, give your baby as much water as possible.
• To bring down high temperatures. If the baby is sick, his temperature has jumped, then the first advice given by all doctors, without exception, is to drink as much as possible. Milk at a high temperature is contraindicated, only fermented milk products are allowed. Therefore, the best way out for mommy will be to give the child some water.
• When the child is older than two months. If a newborn can only get by with mother's milk, then the baby is a little older - no longer. The body grows, as do its needs. Many pediatricians from 2.5 months already recommend to supplement the baby not only with water, but also with dried fruit compotes.
IMPORTANT! Irina Vostrikova, a pediatrician at the MEDSI clinic, believes that babies do not need to be supplemented, because breast milk is already 90% water. However, this may be necessary if the mother herself does not drink enough fluids. So, a nursing mother should drink at least 2 liters of ordinary non-carbonated water per day.
In hot weather, the baby can be offered water between feedings in a volume of 10-15 ml: if the baby refuses, then now he does not need additional liquid. The same recommendations are valid for artificial feeding. It is better to give water to the child with a spoon, and not from a bottle. Because when feeding from a bottle, the baby has a "sucking confusion", and he begins to take the breast incorrectly - because of this, the effectiveness of stimulating milk production is reduced, and the nipples are injured.
What are the dangers of early water intake? What problems in a newborn can cause frequent water intake?
• Malnutrition. If you give your baby water shortly before feeding, the liquid will take place in the baby's stomach, and he will eat less milk. As a result, the baby will remain hungry, his body will receive fewer nutrients, and the mother will not empty the mammary glands, which threatens to stagnate milk and reduce lactation.
• Violation of the intestinal microflora. The use of water leads to the appearance in the body of a newborn of the first bacteria, which are not always beneficial. This is a load on the intestines, the likelihood of developing dysbacteriosis.
• Load on the kidneys. The introduction of water into the diet makes the kidneys work more intensively, and the body of a newborn baby may not be ready for this.
IMPORTANT! Elena Shmakova, consultant on breastfeeding and baby care at the Lada Center, teacher of the WHO/UNICEF course on Counseling on Breastfeeding, adds that supplementation poses a risk to breastfeeding itself.
The fact is that milk is produced in response to sucking, and its amount directly depends on the frequency of breast stimulation. If you give your baby water to drink, he will suckle less often and less, which means that the stimulation of the mammary glands will decrease.
She is sure that the baby should be supplemented only when breastfeeding does not help with the dehydration of the baby due to malaise. Dehydration can be detected, for example, when the number of urination is less than 6 per day, while the urine is concentrated, dark, it is less than usual.
Read also: Can children be given mineral water
General recommendations for supplementation
baby.
• Only purified water should be given. The best option would be to buy bottled water. Today in stores you can find bottles of water intended for children: it has gone through all possible purifications and is devoid of harmful bacteria. It is also possible to use well water at home, which has passed through special children's filters.
Avoid using tap water, even filtered.
• Use only boiled water. By doing this, you significantly reduce the risk of crumbs of harmful bacteria entering the body (almost all of them die when boiled).
• If possible, use silverware. Today, at affordable prices, you can find children's spoons and cups made of silverware. This metal has amazing properties to destroy pathogens. Pour water into a silver cup and let it steep. Alternatively, you can use silver water ionizers. This choice will be more economical
.• If the baby drinks mother's milk, water should be given from a spoon. Drinking from a bottle will be very easy for him, and he may eventually refuse to breastfeed
.• If the baby is healthy and is gaining weight well, then there is no need to insist and forcibly give him some water. So he has enough breast milk.
• Water should be given 10-15 minutes after feeding and between meals. In no case do not let us drink before meals: the crumbs will have a feeling of false satiety.
