Starting with un-related issues, we often don’t know the transition from one stage to the other for babies and so here they are.
0-1 month- newborn
2-12 months- infant
1 year-3/4 years- toddler
So the next time you are looking something up on the Internet and it says infant, your 13 month old does not fall in that category…
Now on to my piece for the day, do we know how much water we should give our babies when we start weaning? Most often we just know that we need to give our babies water to avoid constipation and when they refuse to take water as we think they should we go crazy with worry, wondering what we can do to help them take water. We add fruit juice to mask the taste or even add it to their food or sometimes just give it to them by force.
For the first 6 months if you are on exclusive breastfeeding, then there is no need to give your baby water, as breast milk is 88% water.
When you introduce water to your infant, please limit how much you are offering. Baby should drink no more than 2-4 ounces 60-120 ml a day or as your pediatrician recommends. You do not want the water to displace the intake of breast milk and/or formula. Take the opportunity to offer water from a sippy cup also. Water in a sippy cup is the perfect liquid to use when introducing the sippy cup
Please use extreme caution when offering infants water. Infants who drink too much water may come down with Water Intoxication. For children under 1 year old – and especially during the first nine months of life – drinking too much water may be a dangerous practice.
Water intoxication though rare, can cause seizures and even a coma. Water intoxication happens when too much water dilutes the concentration of sodium in the body, upsetting the electrolyte balance and causing tissues to swell.
Adding too much water to your baby’s formula not only risks water intoxication, it means that your baby is taking in fewer nutrients than he needs. Carefully follow the package directions for mixing powdered or concentrated formula and don’t try to stretch formula by using more than the recommended amount of water.
After his first birthday, when your baby’s eating solids and drinking whole milk, you can let him drink as much water as he likes.
NB. please use your mother instincts, this is not a rule