Things You Need to Know about Giving Water to Your Baby

Since water presents crucial and unavoidable substance for every living creature on our planet, it’s not even possible to think about any restrictions related to its consummation. Even though there can hardly be any drink that is safer than water for human organism, surprisingly, it may not be that harmless for newborns. If you have wondered is it smart to give your baby clear water to drink, what is the best time for that and can water produce any health consequences, your dilemmas are reasonable, since there is a lot of guidelines every parent should follow in order to ensure the safest water drinking for their baby. Pay attention to the following directions to learn all the important facts related to providing water to your baby:

Giving water to a newborn –safe or not?

Although it sounds unbelievable, providing infants with water carries possibility for very serious health complications. Breast feeding and baby formulas supply baby’s organism with sufficient level of nutritive components and liquids, so there’s no risk that your baby will experience dehydration or constipation. Paediatricians strongly recommend staying away from giving water to your baby at least until the moment it gradually switches to solid nutrition, since water can disturb the process of important nutrients’ adoption within baby’s digestive tract and can also cause the lack of appetite. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should panic if your baby laps up few drops of water before doctor approved it, but you just need to avoid giving larger water amounts during the first months of child’s life.

The exact time when baby can drink water

Generally looking, suggested age limit which you should follow to ensure safe water consummation for your baby is 6 months. Even when your child reaches this age, you must be careful with water quantity you provide.  From baby’s birth until 3 months of age, water shouldn’t be a part of child’s daily nutrition, since it can overfull its belly and occupy the place where beneficial milk should be. When your child enters 4^th or 5^th month, water becomes less harmful for it, but if you still breast feed it, there’s no need to include additional water supplies. In case baby is exposed to hot weather conditions which can cause sweating and it has been fed with milk formula, you can give small dose of water, but even then, you must consult paediatrician and conduct suggestions with great caution. As your baby turns 6 months, its digestive system starts to develop more and more, so you can occasionally give it medium feeding bottle of water to quench the thirst, but it’s still unnecessary to drink too often. The time when baby’s meals are frequently based on regular milk and food, what’s usually around its 1^st year, is when unlimited amount of water becomes safe for its body.

Potential complications of early water consummation

The most common illness condition caused when too much water is given to young babies is water intoxication. This may be very dangerous, since lot of water leads to excessive excretion of electrolytes mostly through baby’s urine, resulting in serious brain damages, seizures or even comatose stage. Since water easily fills stomach, baby tends to eat less what can disturb its weight and overall development.

Quality of water your baby drinks

Apart from correlation between the amount of water and current baby’s age, water composition also plays a crucial role in providing proper hydration to your child. While mineral and spring bottled waters contain plenty of healthy substances, their levels are designed to support adult’s needs, and for newborns it may be too excessive. Regular tap water usually includes mineral’s structures and quantities which are more harmonized with beneficial water contents that babies need. Anyway, it’s not unusual that tap water carries some ill-threatening parasites, what is the greatest danger parents should be afraid of.  Whole House water filters Sydney can provide excellent water purification, so installing them within your home may be ideal solution for keeping water resources safe for baby’s use. You can also fight against eventual bacteria by boiling the water you’ll give to your baby.

Health benefits water brings to both adults and children are tremendous, but still, sensitive newborn’s organism dictates a lot of limitations, requiring from parents to implement many useful advices related to baby’s proper water intake.