# When is ANY brand of mineral water safe?



## Lara310809

Just wondering when I can give my LO any brand of mineral water. I realise that when they're little you can only give the safe brands (eg Evian) because of sodium levels, but when do they become old enough for the other brands? 

We found that our tap water is yellow, and left for a couple of days you can see rust residue in the baby bottles; i dont want her drinking rusty water. I can't get to the supermarket with the car to buy loads of bottles of the safe brand water, and the shop across the road only stocks 'non safe' brands. Don't know what to do :shrug:

The health visitors here have no idea so I haven't even asked them. They didn't even realise That bottled water was bad for babies :dohh: so I don't really want to rely on them for advice. Wondering what other mums have been told. It's not a case of my LO having a couple of ounces of mineral water a day; we will need to make all her milk feeds plus drinks out of mineral water, so obviously I don't want to start giving her it if it's going to make her sick


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## MissCherry15

I have never known it unsafe to have any kind of mineral water. Its just water at the end of the day. Its sterile. If i ran out of water to give lilly i made her bottles at 3months old on with mineral water out and about and just the cheap stuff. At 1years old you daughter wont get ill or die from drinking bottled water. In some places its safer then tap water so you would use it everyday :S 

I never ever known bottled water to be unsafe for a baby let alone a toddler hun x


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## Lara310809

Thanks. I heard the sodium levels can give babies a bad tummy; I assume by that it means they could get pains or cramping, or have the runs or be sick? I have no idea really; I'm just assuming. But because I heard hat I don't want to give it to her unless I know it's safe in large quantities. It's hot here, somaling with her milk she's drinking about 15oz of water each day.


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## New2Bumps

Over 1 I think you'd be okay with any brand or you could get ready mixed baby milk if you're not sure or she could drink cows milk now anyway.


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## Lara310809

Just called the health visitor and they said I shouldn't give her bottled at all at this age. I kinda thought that it would be okay now at 14 months :shrug: I asked about the rust in our taP water and she then agreed that i should switch to bottled water (i guess rust really isnt healthy, lol), but boil it first to get rid of the salt. Do you think that sounds right?


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## Lara310809

New2Bumps said:


> Over 1 I think you'd be okay with any brand or you could get ready mixed baby milk if you're not sure or she could drink cows milk now anyway.

Thanks hon; it's the regular drinks (Other than formula) too though. I try not to give her juice drinks etc, so normally give her water or herbal tea,'made from the tap


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## MissCherry15

So you dont do juice squash or cows milk at all :S?x


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## Lara310809

no. The reason we don't give cow's milk is because she's quite underweight (at one point she was in the second centile), and some days she just doesn't seem to have an appetite for food, so we figure that if we have her on formula, at least she's still getting fairly decent spectrum of nutrition on those days, whereas with cow's milk it would be more limited. She's had cow's milk, so she's not allergic or anything, but we don't give it to her regularly, simply because we have more faith in the formula boosting her calorie/vitamin intake. 

I've given her juice drinks a handful of times, but we'd quite like her to stay off the sweeter drinks as long as possible. I don't object to mothers giving their kids squash etc, just don't see the point of giving my LO it if she's happy enough with water and herbal tea :shrug:


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## OmarsMum

Hi Hun, any water would do. Evian is not so good for babies as it's spring water & is loaded with minerals other than sodium, but it's considered "safe" because of the quality control. Any local water with no fluoride added & sodium less than 20 mg/ ltr is fine. Boiling mineral water will increase the concentrate of salts Hun. I think Evian has 6 mg/lts of sodium, check the labels of all your local brands & choose the one with the lowest sodium xx

ETA: the water we use for Omar has 3 mg/ ltrs of sodium & less tha 1 mg/lts of fluoride xx


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## fantastica

Just seen where you are, so no idea what brands you have! But we've always used bottled water for jacob since he was a baby, as our tap water isn't safe for babies (magnesium or something), so we use highland spring as it's supposed to be the 'purist'. But now he just uses any if we're out. X


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## Nibblenic

I had no idea that they shouldnt be drinking bottled water. :wacko:

Not at my lo has had much bottled water, although she has it reguarly now when its hot. Very odd. :shrug:


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## Lara310809

fantastica said:


> Just seen where you are, so no idea what brands you have! But we've always used bottled water for jacob since he was a baby, as our tap water isn't safe for babies (magnesium or something), so we use highland spring as it's supposed to be the 'purist'. But now he just uses any if we're out. X

LOL, we border with Spain, so we have their brands, as well as the usual brands available in the UK, since they're brought in by lorry. The local brands are really cheap, so we tend to buy them (not for LO); around 20p for 2 litres! Unfortunately the ones from the UK are a lot more expensive. I think I saw a 2 litre bottle of Highland Spring in the shops over here for £2 :shock:


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## WW1

I would have thought that boiling the water would increase the sodium levels rather than decrease them. I can't see why it would help.

I'd be staggered if it's a major issue to give bottled water at 14 months. After all, they can pretty much eat anything at that age! If it was that unsafe, I'm sure they'd have to put it on the label. 

Have you looked on any brand's websites?


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## Lara310809

WW1 said:


> I would have thought that boiling the water would increase the sodium levels rather than decrease them. I can't see why it would help.
> 
> I'd be staggered if it's a major issue to give bottled water at 14 months. After all, they can pretty much eat anything at that age! If it was that unsafe, I'm sure they'd have to put it on the label.
> 
> Have you looked on any brand's websites?

Ugh, I know. I realised that after I spoke to my OH. It's common sense that boiling water allows the water to evaporate and the salt to stay put, meaning that the water left over is more concentrated in sodium. The advice you get from the HV's office here is so stupid; I hate going to them for advice, because most of the time it's so wrong I refuse to go by it.


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## Racheldigger

I think your best bet would be to filter your tap water. You can get filter jugs that go in your fridge door, and you just pour the tap water into the chamber at the top, and it slowly drips down into a chamber below where you pour it off again for use. I don't use one myself, because our tap water's pretty good quality here, but my mum has one because her water's so hard that it petrifies the kettle otherwise. It's supposed to get rid of all sorts of residues and dissolved minerals, and should certainly be good enough for stuff you can see with the naked eye.


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