To date, the question of whether the newborn needs to be given water is very relevant. The answer cannot be unambiguous. After all, it all depends on whether the child is on artificial or natural feeding. In the first case, the answer is obvious: "Yes." A child can drink about 100 ml of water during the day. This amount is considered normal. You can not deprive the baby of water if he asks for it. After all, it is necessary for the body to function normally.
Importance of water
Today, those mothers who have adult children can confidently say that dehydration is very dangerous for the baby. Therefore, the question of whether a newborn should be given water arises mainly in inexperienced parents. Our grandmothers say that you need to drink a child, and modern doctors say no. Many simply do not know what kind of water to give to a newborn. Some believe that it is necessary to give boiled water, and many are simply convinced that only specialized water is needed.
The latter are absolutely right. After all, boiled water is considered dead. It is devoid of all the necessary microorganisms and minerals. Therefore, it is better to give preference to bottled baby water, which is created specifically for babies. But this is what concerns children on artificial feeding. With infants, the question is owls
This is different.
Many mothers who breastfeed their baby simply don’t know if the newborn needs to be given water. In order to correctly answer this question, it is necessary to return a few years ago. Then there was no purified water, and parents were afraid to harm the health of their baby. Therefore, they preferred to simply breastfeed. To finish the baby began only when he received "adult" food. The World Health Organization strongly recommends that children who have not reached the age of six months should not be given water in general, since its intake carries a number of dangers.
- malnutrition. The baby’s stomach takes as much food as it can. Therefore, if the baby drank 50 g of water, then he will not receive the same amount of milk, which is so important for its development.
- Reduced milk production. A child who is drunk with water simply abandons his chest. That is why a woman receives much less milk. It is especially dangerous to drink a child at night. After all, it is at this time that lactation improves.
- Imbalance in the digestive system of the baby. The newborn has a sterile intestine, and during natural feeding it is seeded only with beneficial microflora. Water can worsen this balance, and the child will develop dysbiosis.
- Breaking the chest. Usually mothers give children a bottle with a pacifier. Many babies after that simply refuse to take the mother's breast.
Erroneous opinions
However, there are some experts who, when asked whether the newborn needs to be given water, clearly say what is needed. They have a number of reasons.
- Water helps fight infant jaundice. This is actually not the case. Jaundice causes bilirubin, and it is a fat-soluble substance, so it can be excreted only with milk.
- Milk is a food that needs to be washed down with water. This is not true. Almost 90% of the milk consists of water. The newborn does not distinguish between the concepts of “hunger” and “thirst”, which is why there is a false satiation.
Now we see that the question of whether to give water to a newborn, there is a definite answer: "No." Children are smarter than adults, and many even refuse water and start drinking it only closer to the year.