When you have a baby you are flooded with information, feeding, sleeping, transport, keeping your baby happy, entertained, safe.
It’s overwhelming. So it’s not unusual that new parents use Google at twice the rate of before they had a baby.
One of the most common searches for new mums – after “Will I ever get this baby to sleep, and “Will I ever sleep again” – is about baby feeding, and at this time of year it’s whether or not you can give your baby water.
And the simple, yet frightening answer is no. You can’t.
Experts warn that giving babies water can lead to serious complications such as malnutrition, diarrhoea and can even be fatal.
A frightening report in The Mirror with the headline “Why you should NEVER feed your baby water - and how it could be fatal if you do” is making new mums seek Google's advice even more, terrified that they might be inadvertently putting their babies at risk.
So, what’s the real story?
Well, it is true that water intoxication can happen, but it’s pretty rare and difficult for a baby.
Registered dietitian Katie Zeratsky of the Mayo Clinic told BuzzFeed: “In terms of a baby, in most cases they would get too full to do this, so it would be more challenging to create this situation in an infant. It’s not impossible, though."
Last year a couple from the US state of Georgia were arrested after their 10-week old baby died from watered down breast milk which caused her brain to swell.
Nevaeh Marie Landell died in late March of water intoxication according to CBS NEWS. Her parents were arrested after police investigated her death.
Prosecutors claimed that her parents, 26-year old Herbert George Landell and 25-year old Lauren Heather Fristed added water to their baby daughter's breast milk, robbing it of nutrients.
When Nevaeh got sick, the couple didn't seek medical treatment due to their religious beliefs. When they finally took the desperately ill little girl to hospital, it was too late.
We’ve all heard the old wives’ tale that in summer time babies should be given cool boiled water, but this simply isn’t true, according to the experts.
Top Comments
I have no idea how my 3 children survived long enough to produce children of their own. The numbers of things I gave them to eat, drink or play with that were fatal is amazing.
Don't even get me started on the things I subjected them to while they were in utero! Eggs! cheese! prawns! What was I thinking!
Me too Nanna _J.
It reminds me of a funny story I read years ago in Readers Digest.
A woman wrote "I'm glad my children grew up before there was any such things as teenagers." 😊
Good god, compared to other animals human babies are terrible at general survival skills.
I know, and all the equipment they need to get through the day, prams, nappy bags, baby carriers. Can't they just hang on like other mammals, or sort out the toileting sooner? Bunch of babies. Really.
I'm honestly confused as to how we survived as a species when our babies yell constantly and can't even help you out by holding their heads up when you have to flee from the lions. Did we just sit in a tree with the damn baby for the first few months while more and more lions circled below? What happened?!