Introducing water,juice etc.@ 4months.

[KarenLV]

I have been told to start introducing water to my boy at 4 months.Is that the end of the fourth month or the start of it?
How much water can I give?
Do they actually drink the water?
How many times a day should I give him some of it?

 

[Eelis]

Usually 20weeks + is ok for new stuff. Though it's best to stick to milk for first 6 months so the "current advice" is anyway.

Won't do any harm to try water earlier i'm sure but the problem is that as milk is both meal and drink for baby if you give him lots of water at the moment he won't want milk, which is what he really needs at the moment. It's got all the good stuff in it for him.

Try a little bit BEFORE milk to start with, just a couple fl. After milk they often are not interested lol. You may well find that baby is not sure of it to start with and won't touch it. Just keep offering each day.

Personally I wouldn't give any child juice until after 12 months (to be honest my daughter is 14 months and has still not had any, i've no plans to give her any either).

Fruit juice "feels" healthy but is absolutely packed with sugar and not very good for teeth, which are certainly a pain to clean properly when you are small like to chew your toothbrush! If your child has lots of fruit in his/her diet he/she won't really need juice anyway.

And as for squash/ribena etc... Bleh, they should be banned from shops tbh

 

[Carley]

Just be careful baby doesn't fill up on other liquids because they may refuse the breast/bottle from being full from water/other liquids

I agree avoid adult juice, it's full of sugar. You could try the baby juice, I'm not sure what options you have there?

 

[1st_baby]

Iv been feeding My LO who is 3 months now , solids so he gets about 4 sips of water after each solid meal ..he gets his milk before anything

i found with water he liked it but juice ..I tried but dont want him used to that stuff

 

[marley2580]

Is he bottle or breast fed? Breast fed babies don't need any other liquids until they are well onto solids.

 

[sabby52]

Dec always got water from about 3 weeks, HV advised because he was formula fed she said he needed some water to keep him regular!!!!! But with juice he was never interested, still is not he prefers milk or water. You can get little jars of baby juice but I found them quite strong I used to water them down a bit, still he wouldnt take them!!!!!
My HV said that you can give adult juice if you want but when you are making it just put in enough to colour the water so a nip.

 

[loveshopping]

Make sure you boil the water first and let it cool down. I used the small Advent bottles when I started using the bigger ones for milk.