Bottled water to use for bottles??

laurendiaz02 · April 2016

I have been doing research on bottled water to use for bottles. I am a FTM and our son will be exclusively formula fed and I'm trying to find out the best water to use. The main thing I am concerned about is fluoride and most bottled water/"baby" water contains this. I found that Penta water appears to be fluoride free, but it's expensive (about $40/case). My husband has it in his head that we need to install a whole house water filtration system that takes out fluoride, but it's thousands of dollars! Thoughts??

lolonvive · April 2016

According to the CDC, fluoride is safe for infants, but if formula is the baby's only source of food then you'll want to use low-fluoride water, it doesnt seem that it has to be completely fluoride free.
https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/infant_formula.htm

ETA- check with your pediatrician or dentist who can advise on the fluoride in your area's water as well, and you can likely use regular bottled water.

AmberLiz99 · April 2016

You can get a free water report for your local city water. I'm exclusively FF this baby, and I did my first baby too, and I'll use tap water again. My pediatrician actually recommended it (based on where we live and our good water quality).

purplefan1 · April 2016

Eap. Don't know what I would do but $40 a case seems insane. So does whole house filtration though. What about water filters or those ones that attach to your spout? Don't know much about whether or not they take out fluoride though.

Also, I would literally pay you (not literally, I'm broke) to go back and edit your original post to take out the line "please no comments on this". No one on this particular BMB cares how you feed your baby, as long as you do. And if anyone came on here trying to flame you for it, we would snark the hell out of them far faster than give you any snark.

Let us know what you decide to do on the filtrating or if your OB has any suggestions. Even mommas who plan to BF can some times find that best laid plans don't go their way and have to switch gears. I don't know what I would do since we have somewhat nasty tasting water and it is hard and when the water softener cycles it turns the water brown for a minute. So gross and would not want my baby drinking that mess. But wouldn't want to pay $40 for a case of water either.

Edited for words

lolonvive · April 2016

Brita filters and other 'activated carbon' filters do not remove fluoride, which most of those attached-to-the-sink filters are. I agree with PPs about getting a free water report and determining the water quality in your area.

splsmama2016 · April 2016

I agree with PPs about talking with your dr and pediatrician. Also, I'd get a free water report. If your water contains a very low amount of fluoride, just get one of those Pur filters that snaps onto your tap. I have a few friends that use that, and with my niece, we used a Brita pitcher.

RMLandy · April 2016

All my pediatrician recommended was that we use "filtered" water with no mention of fluoride. We just used store brand bottled water. However, we didn't start formula until about 8 weeks so maybe it's different for brand new borns. I agree to ask the pediatrician!

laurendiaz02 · April 2016

AmberLiz99 said:

You can get a free water report for your local city water. I'm exclusively FF this baby, and I did my first baby too, and I'll use tap water again. My pediatrician actually recommended it (based on where we live and our good water quality).

@AmberLiz99 I had no idea I could get a free water report. I'll look into this --thanks!

laurendiaz02 · April 2016

@June2016BabyW I edited my original post. Thanks

rkrichey · April 2016

I used gallon jugs of water with my first two. They were $1 per gallon and available with or without fluoride. I found them easily at Walmart. They're usually by the formula and/or with the other bottled water. I used the one with fluoride but I'm also a dental hygienist so I wanted it I there for their teeth.

laurendiaz02 · April 2016

Gah. It keeps deleting half of my response. I felt the need to say no comment because every time I'm at Kaiser they are so pushy about breastfeeding and it's getting old. Lol. Didn't mean to sound snarky.

AmberLiz99 · April 2016

laurendiaz02 said:

Gah. It keeps deleting half of my response. I felt the need to say no comment because every time I'm at Kaiser they are so pushy about breastfeeding and it's getting old. Lol. Didn't mean to sound snarky.

I get it. I got a lot of criticism for FF my first, to the point where I tried to avoid ever mentioning it and got kind of defensive. Now with baby #3 I couldn't care less what people say

CourtJack · April 2016

laurendiaz02 said:

Gah. It keeps deleting half of my response. I felt the need to say no comment because every time I'm at Kaiser they are so pushy about breastfeeding and it's getting old. Lol. Didn't mean to sound snarky.

i got in your box just so we could be closer.

You werent snarky. I think it's common to feel impending judgment when you mention formula feeding. But we just DGAF - you feed yo' baby and that's all that matters

Sydvicious08 · April 2016

Nursery water from Walmart. One or two bucks for a gallon

little_bren · April 2016

Umm we used tap water and will again.

ahernandez16 · April 2016

laurendiaz02 said:

Gah. It keeps deleting half of my response. I felt the need to say no comment because every time I'm at Kaiser they are so pushy about breastfeeding and it's getting old. Lol. Didn't mean to sound snarky.

DUDE!!! I have Kaiser too. It's seriously ridiculous how fucking pushy they are about breastfeeding.

I plan to breastfeed for the 6 weeks I'm on leave but after that I plan to try to supplement with formula when I'm at work and BF at home. If it doesn't work I'll just switch to formula exclusively. I have no desire to pump. I asked a nurse about this when they did the breastfeeding "talk" at my 30 week appointment and you would have thought I told her I was going to supplement with fucking tequila. The breastfeeding class I took there was a nightmare.

Also, to answer your actual question - I'm planning on using tap or regular bottled water. I didn't even realize people used anything different than that.

Emztron500 · April 2016

Distilled water is cheap and contains no flouride.

marriedtoadutchman · April 2016

AmberLiz99 said:

You can get a free water report for your local city water. I'm exclusively FF this baby, and I did my first baby too, and I'll use tap water again. My pediatrician actually recommended it (based on where we live and our good water quality).

This.

i have FF my last three and used tap water for all of them. I would just boil the water before hand .

PBear93 · April 2016

We just used normal tap water with my first. Never thought about using anything different.

MynaBird · April 2016

PBear93 said:

We just used normal tap water with my first. Never thought about using anything different.

Me too. Our pediatrician talked a lot with us about good formula-feeding practices and the question of not using tap water never even came up. Although we live in an area with really good water and that isn't necessarily the case everywhere.

lm45678 · April 2016

Wow I never even thought about this (great mom I am!)

I want to say when I nannied she had a Brita that she left out on the counter so it was room temp.

Anyone else do that?

TNvols27 · April 2016

laurenm2123 said:

Wow I never even thought about this (great mom I am!)

I want to say when I nannied she had a Brita that she left out on the counter so it was room temp.

Anyone else do that?

I'm a FTM, but my sister has 4 kids (pregnant with her 5th) and she does this. Not sure if hers is a Brita though. It's some sort of purifier.

laurendiaz02 · April 2016

Emztron500 said:

Distilled water is cheap and contains no flouride.

I recently learned this! Lol. However, I was always under the impression that people don't drink distilled water. I've only ever used it for ironing! Haha.

Unfortunatley where I live, the tap water is not great quality (according to our 2015 report on my water companies website). The water is "hard", and seems to have a lot of sodium/fluoride in it.

I I like the idea of using a Brita but that doesn't filter our fluoride and neither does boiling tap water. So using tap water isn't an option in our house (unless we have the whole house filtration system installed). Ugh. Why is water so complicated? Lol.

PBear93 · April 2016

You can totally drink distilled water. I have a friend who is allergic to floride and that's what she drinks (she also cooks with it because she can't have it come in contact with her food at all).

Tawny87 · April 2016

We just used filtered tap water.

cy&damonsmommy · April 2016

I used tap water or the water from the store in the gallon jug... it has a pink label and a picture of a baby on it. Can't remember what it's called.

vulpini · April 2016

We used a Brita pitcher on the counter for room temp filtered water. Our area has no added flouride in the tap water though. We have to add flouride drops to our toddler's water now.

TiffanyRickF · April 2016

We formula fed our first... After a miserable four weeks of hoping my boobs would produce... I joke my boobs are just for show lol we used tab water or regular priced $4 case water bottled water. I second what was said about check water quality. 40/case is nuts. We also used Costco brand (Kirklands) formula, it was a 1/3 of the cost of other formula (huge can for $16) Similic actually makes it. Our son had no issues with gas or allergies or reflux. Good luck on your water decision

Emztron500 · April 2016

People don't drink distilled water because it tastes nasty! Water only tastes good with some mineral content. But for mixing with formula it's fine.

cjackrunfast78 · April 2016

I boiled tap water with my first 3 and plan to do the same again.

Knottie1447115665 · April 2016

Oh good lord, unless you live in Flint, get a Brita and relax.

little_bren · April 2016

TiffanyRickF said:

We formula fed our first... After a miserable four weeks of hoping my boobs would produce... I joke my boobs are just for show lol we used tab water or regular priced $4 case water bottled water. I second what was said about check water quality. 40/case is nuts. We also used Costco brand (Kirklands) formula, it was a 1/3 of the cost of other formula (huge can for $16) Similic actually makes it. Our son had no issues with gas or allergies or reflux. Good luck on your water decision

Love the Kirkland formula. The only difference I noticed is that it was foamier. I had no idea Similac made it. It's a Godsend. Seriously.

And call me a bad mom if you want, but I have no plans or desire to buy water or a Brita or boil water unless my child has some sort of weird sensitivity. DD did great and is almost never sick. Why create more work for yourself? I wash bottles in the dishwasher too and don't sterilize them. Everyone lived.

kemb0001 · April 2016

with my first the pediatrician mentioned that as long as you are on city water, you would be fine and there would be no need to boil water. city water also has fluoride which is better than most bottled waters. as a mom who supplemented with formula for my first child, save where you can. formula is expensive enough as it is, don't add to the expenses by buying bottled water when you have it for free at home.

AOliveira11 · April 2016

I work for a water delivery service company and we are getting 5Gallom bottles of distilled water to use in our cooker for formula feeding. It is water that is basically stripped of all the minerals and deposits you would find naturally in water. You can go online and find water analysis reports for different brands to see the levels of minerals and deposita found in a particular source like spring water

laurendiaz02 · April 2016

After a lot of discussion, we have settled on purchasing a system for our sink faucet instead of a whole house system. We researched and ordered one on Amazon that my husband installed. Only about $300 and the water tastes great. The water comes out of the silver faucet. We did also purchase several cases of smart water to have for "on the go".

jennk0118 · April 2016

I used nursery water for a few months... And then just went to tap water. My son got his first tooth at 3 1/2 months.. So I wanted the flouride. But to be honest.. I probably would have switched anyways. Formula is expensive enough and I was already paying for water..

snowhite12 · April 2016

I started FFing my DD when she was 3 months. We had well water and would buy the nursery water at Wal-Mart.
I plan on BFing for longer this time, but when I do switch to formula, we have city water now (we moved) and a filtration system in our fridge, I will just use the water out of our fridge.
To the other PPs who mentioned pushy people about BFing, I was on the opposite side of the spectrum lol. My MIL, her sister, and just about every other female on my H's side constantly commented on how they never breastfed bc their mother (H's grandmother) said it was for "poor people" and how hard it must be for me/time consuming to exclusively breastfeed.

People are crazy.

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