Baby Water

I made my own baby food too and my doctor said to just use filtered tap water. I would use either breast milk or the water that I oiled or steamed the veggies in to thin it.

We always used experessed breast milk to thin the food (but I was also working FT so we had a lot of milk on hand). If you don't have a pump or don't want to mess with it, I think any filtered tap water is fine.

I used nursery water in the first couple of months and then used bottled water. Now that they're older they primarily drink water from our Brita pitcher that filters the tap water. Both of my kids are very healthy, happy and doing well in school so I feel our plan worked well for us. Plus the flouride from the filtered tap water must have helped because they always have great check-ups at the dentist and they've had no cavities.

Good luck!

Well, I know that flouride would still benefit since she does have teeth, but they are just under the gums. There is one woman who ONLY drank bottled water and had TONS of cavities because she wasn't getting the flouride. I'm not really sure about the whole cancer thing, seems like everything causes cancer these days, even popcorn fumes?! I would ask your pediatrician though because they might agree with you and just say use bottled!
I also have a 5 1/2 month old baby girl, we live in Wanatah. Aren't girls so much fun! Is your sitting up yet and rolling over?

I agree w/ U about the flouride, I never bought infant H2O for my own kids (3) I used the gallons of distilled H2O from walmart or target (cheapest) cause the water is captured steam, no microbes can live thru that(no need to boil). Spring water is usually purified but the difference is the minerals it contains (flouride could be among those).

I am breast feeding my little guy too and making his food. I use tap water to boil or steam the food in and use that as the "added" water or you can use breast milk as the liquid to add to it.

Good Luck!
B.

I agree with just using tap water. My daughter never had bottled water as a baby. Our Doc and nurses all said that tap water is just fine. She had an occasional bottle of formula and we always made it with tap water as well as thinning out her food.

Jessica

Hi J.

Congratulations on nursing and making your own baby food. It is such a satisfying thing to know that everything your baby is getting comes from you.
I normally used breastmilk for thinning food, though you can use water. The breastmilk helped to ease the transition into solids as it is a familiar taste for baby.
While I have the same concerns you shared about flouride in water and the quality of the water I used, I felt comfortable using tap water for cooking. Tap water actually has a good amount of minerals that are important. I would use it to steam my baby food vegetables and reserve the water from the steaming to thin the baby food (the water holds a lot of the nutrients from the steamed vegetables).
Hope this helps. Good luck and happy cooking!

A.

You can use whatever water you drink...bottled or tap. No need to boil bottled water first.

What ever water you drink is what you can use. I've had a few nurses and doctors in the family tell me this so I'd have to trust them on it.

And I've never heard of flouride as a "slow cancer causing agent".

I always used the cooking water as a way to recover whatever nutrients may have leached from the food in the process of cooking. If something was too thick when serving, I would use either expressed breast milk or water.

By all means make your own nursery water by boiling the water for 15 minutes to rid the impurities. Let the water sit and cool. I nursed and made my own baby food too. After a year, I used regular tap water.

The experts also say drinking a cold drink with a hot meal will give you stomach cancer.

The added Flouride helps make their teeth stronger when they come in---and I can tell the difference in my children. As for the long term effects, I was given added flouride when I was younger (we had to drink a cup at school every week), and I have yet to see an bad long-term effects.

what about tap water?? My Pedi said tap water is fine (as long as we don't live in an area that solely uses well water)

Tap water or bottle water is fine or you can even mix it with your milk. I pumped at first and mixed with my milk and then I eventually just switched to using tap water, which my daughter drinks now. In fact, tap water does contain small amounts of flouride in it that they say is suppose to be sufficient for kids. I haven't heard anything about the cancer causing but I did hear that too much flouride can cause some discoloring of the teeth. However, since you are nursing and only using the water to mix with food you should be fine with whatever type of water you decide to use.

J.:

why not express and use some of your breast milk?

P., RLC, IBCLC
Pres. Lactation Support Group, Inc
www.lactationsupportgroup.com

It might also be a good idea to use your own breast milk to mix with it-thats what my sister does and it works well.

I am a dental hygienist and from my experience it would be beneficial to give her the nursery water. We have unfortunately seen the effects of kids not getting enough fluoride as the teeth are developing---weak and mottled enamel with white spots on the teeth and a higher incidence of decay. Fluoride is also important for bone strength and we all know how critical that is especially for females.
I certainly understand your concerns with cancer, however the doses of ingested fluoride that have been shown with any link with cancer are extremely high---there was a generation of kids that was given fluoride tablets as a supplement and their incidence of cancer is no higher than anyone else's. I am also a very health conscious mom of 2 boys (low sugar, no dairy, both breastfed for a year) but I do give my boys nursery water because the benefits FAR outweigh any slight risk.
Good luck to you!