Giving babies water

BabyCakes3

My mom ALWAYS insists on giving DD water. It started when she was born & had the hiccups all the time & freaked out. The pedi said they (DH & mom) could give her a few sips to calm her down. I would just nurse her.

She's fine with the hiccups now. But my mom wants to give her water for everything. She'll say she's got a sore throat or a headache or that she's thirsty. Today it's for her constipation. I told her that I'd rather her just have milk b/c she doesn't need the water. If I let my mom watch her for an hr or so, I will come home & she will have a bottle with water out saying DD needed it for whatever new reason she came up with.

What's up with this? Isn't BM like 98% water? It annoys me to no end. I've quit asking her to watch DD b/c she just does whatever she wants even if I've said otherwise but sometimes I just NEED to get out of the house & run some errands. 

She also wants to give her tylenol for everything.

Anyone else's mom do this with water or tylenol? My mom said she gave me lots of water.

ohwhattheheck

does she know how dangerous it can be to give a baby water?

Jbugsmama

me pedi said jayden needed to be 6mths old until he could have h2o when he did turn 6mths, i gave it to him in his sippy with ice and he loved it. he prefers water today over any real sweet juice. i still diliute his juice

ad*H*ab

It's actually dangerous to give her water before 6mos anf excessive tylenol isn't good either.

kellibrianoct8

when we were children it was different.  i went through the same thing with dd grandmothers.  it is now not safe to give babies water.  it can give them electrolyte imbalance.  my pedi said that the formula has enough water in it and that is all they need.  as for the medication it is not candy.  i would be furious with my mother.  it is your child.  i went through the same thing.

RobynK

My Mom said she used to give us all 1 oz of water daily, starting with my brother that was 39 years ago.  With the formula today this isn't necessary.  If you are BF this is not necessary.

You need to have a serious talk with your Mom.  "Mom, thank you for all of the help and advise you have given me.  I really appreciate it but I need you to respect me as a mother and what I want to do for my DD.  I do not want to give her water.  If she is fussy here are the things I usually do that calm her down, please try these and if they still don't work you can call me for other ideas -- but please don't give her water."

She needs a gentle but firm reminder that YOU are DD's Mom -- not her.  She MUST respect your wishes now or you are going to continue this battle forever -- starting solids earlier than you want might be your next battle.

jorae

My mom told me to ask my pedi about giving K water. Before the question was out of my mouth, my pedi freaked out. He said "NO NO NO water! Let me guess, the grandma's suggested this. I don't know what they used to do out on the prairie but it is not safe to give babies water." Said you can create some kind of imbalance in their system. DH and I cracked up becuase all the g'ma's were suggesting water. 

RobynK

You should a Google search and print out some articles for her (or email them to her).  Here's one.

https://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/giving-water-to-baby.html 

laur1120

I would make it clear to your mom that is not acceptable and if she can't respect your wishes than she can't watch DD.  I've never even given DD tylenol and she is almost 4 months old. I would just take DD with you when running errands- I do- it's not worth it I don't think. 

zucchinigirl

I caught MIL giving DD water when I picked her up after work one day... DH laid down the law.  It's unsafe for young babies to have too much water - the water in BM or through FF is plenty.  Otherwise you are feeding them empty calories - if they're hungry, give them formula/BM.