giving a new born baby water

Our daughter is 16 days old today.

The wife wants to give her water so she does not eat so much food
(bottle).

Is there such a thing as over feeding a baby with bottle milk. I think
the wife is being silly.

I understand that giving water is a very very bad idea, especially in
not small quantity (boiled though).

Baby tends to eat about 530ml 600ml 670ml 495ml every 24 hours 0000 to
0000.

Midwife stated to be worried if she takes anything less than 500ml per
24 hours.

I beleive if baby wants it she should get her feed regardless of
quantity (within reason of course)

Please, what are your opinions.

Maatt

maatt writes:

Our daughter is 16 days old today. The wife wants to give her water so
she does not eat so much food (bottle).

You're right - this is a very, very bad idea.

I have to wonder *why* your wife wants to do this. Is the cost of the
formula an issue? If that's not it, does your wife have an eating disorder,
diagnosed or not? If that might be the case, she needs help fast. Or does
she come from a family or culture where giving newborns water is seen as
normal?

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003

Water is a terrible idea. Babies need pure nutrition at their point in
their life. For the same reason, and I'm sure there's more, always
follow the formula directions on the formula container.

The 1 time I left my 1 month old with my mil for all of 10 minutes I
came back to her giving her water. I was so ****ed off I haven't I
didn't leave her there again until she was older then 1. Grrrr.

Katherine

Hi Maatt, your last post was about induction, did everything go ok?

Definitely do not give a baby water, it is only necessary to give a baby
water on very rare occassions, in the UK, this is in the extreme heat that
we do not experience every year, and certainly aren't experiencing at the
moment.

Being very nosy now, why isn't she breastfeeding?

Anne

maatt wrote:
Our daughter is 16 days old today.

The wife wants to give her water so she does not eat so much food
(bottle).

Is there such a thing as over feeding a baby with bottle milk. I think
the wife is being silly.

I understand that giving water is a very very bad idea, especially in
not small quantity (boiled though).

You understand correctly -- NO water. Don't put anything else in that
bottle aside from the formula (prepared according to package
directions). No cereal, no water, no juice).

maatt wrote:
Our daughter is 16 days old today.

The wife wants to give her water so she does not eat so much food
(bottle).

Is there such a thing as over feeding a baby with bottle milk. I think
the wife is being silly.

I understand that giving water is a very very bad idea, especially in
not small quantity (boiled though).

Baby tends to eat about 530ml 600ml 670ml 495ml every 24 hours 0000 to
0000.

Midwife stated to be worried if she takes anything less than 500ml per
24 hours.

I beleive if baby wants it she should get her feed regardless of
quantity (within reason of course)

Please, what are your opinions.

Do NOT give water to attempt to keep food intake
down. This can seriously mess up her electrolyte balance
("water intoxication" or hyponatremia), which can be
deadly if taken far enough. Even without the issue of
giving water, it can be detrimental to baby's health to
limit food intake. As long as you are not force feeding
her (e.g., trying to get her to finish a bottle even when
she doesn't want to or something like that), she is perfectly
capable of deciding how much and how often she needs to
eat for *her* situation. You should not get in the middle
of that and mess things up.
The amount she is eating is well within normal
limits. There is no reason to be concerned with the amount
she is eating. If your wife were breastfeeding, she wouldn't
even have any *idea* how many ml your daughter was taking.
As long as your daughter is growing well, there is absolutely
no reason to limit her food intake, and real damage can
by done by limiting her food intake or giving too much
water (and at only 16 days old, it doesn't take much to
constitute too much water).

Best wishes,
Ericka

Thank you ladies for your input. I really value the information that is
provided here.

Thank f&*k I did enquire about giving new born babies water, I just
knew it was inappropiate.

My wife is Japanese; this is the reason she thought that baby should be
given water, I can understand that maybe, this would be appropriate in
such a warm country, but even maybe not a large quantity of water.

She obtained information from Japanese sites similar to this (I
suppose) she claimed that many advised controlling baby's food
consumption rate !! this regimen to be "assisted" by feeding baby water
in between feeds which is what she felt we should be implementing. FFS!
are the Japanese absolutely f*&king mad or what? I admit that is ONE
aspect that I love about her :/

Apparently this is what the Japanese Govt advise and is a trend that
all Japanese citizens follow.

My wife is not breast feeding, I tried to subtlely coerce her into
doing the right thing, but she was not having it - at the end of the
day it is her choice, her body etc. I am not happy about it, but what
can I do ;/ Japanese females are so silly about their bodies etc,
unless they are appropriately warmed up, if you get what I mean ;/

Anne asked about the delivery; I had enquired about induction in here
prior to the delivery.

Fortunately, after abit of the in/out/in/out, 10 days past the due
date, my wife started contractions at 0200 on the 22nd September. She
was bleeding also, so we went to the hospital. She got put into bed at
about 0500 and at 0700 a midwife checked her, said she was bleeding but
not in proper labour. At lunch time consultants stated she could go
home or be induced.

Because they had put an iv thing in her hand she opted to be induced -
she hated that damn thing! At 1400 she was checked again and found to
be 5 cm dilated but her membranes were intact.

At 1700 her membranes were ruptured, her labour pains started proper.
At about 1930 because apparently she was not pushing hard enough, it
was recomended to give her syntocentin via the iv, which gave her mega
contractions and our daughter emerged at 2140.

She took no painkiller but the entonox and my thumbs massaging her
lower back.

She suffered second degree tears and was in hospital for four days.

Thank you all again for the information.

If you wish to see our daughter do drop me a line maatt (AT)
dsl (DOT) pipex (DOT) com, I'll gladly give you (those I know
are kosher) a link and password. I just don't want every tom dick and
harry perving at our pics, you know!

Maatt

Thanks Maatt, what nationality are you?

I have lived in Korea and they are mostly quite positive towards
breastfeeding, though I noticed a lot of women would give their babies
expressed milk while they were out, which was sad, but it is a step in the
right direction.

I'd love to see pictures, my email is as in the header to this message

Anne

Hi Anne, I am Cornish and currently live in London where I met my
wonderful wife.

"maatt" wrote in message
ups.com...
Our daughter is 16 days old today.

The wife wants to give her water so she does not eat so much food
(bottle).

Is there such a thing as over feeding a baby with bottle milk. I think
the wife is being silly.

I understand that giving water is a very very bad idea, especially in
not small quantity (boiled though).

Baby tends to eat about 530ml 600ml 670ml 495ml every 24 hours 0000 to
0000.

Midwife stated to be worried if she takes anything less than 500ml per
24 hours.

I beleive if baby wants it she should get her feed regardless of
quantity (within reason of course)

Please, what are your opinions.

Maatt


I had a very strong gut reaction to this question... But I won't share what
initially went through my head. However, babies are designed to eat what
they need to develop as they should. There is no reason to be concerned
with over feeding, and you shouldn't have to worry about this EVER with your
children, as long as they are eating healthy. People who are given a
healthy variety of foods to eat generally will not get fat, even if they
don't count calories and whatnot. It's when we subject ourselves to fast
food and snack foods and other garbage.

But NO, don't give the baby water. The baby needs to eat.