Katie Ferraro (0s):

So babies don't need extra water because formula and or breast milk is meeting their fluid needs. Extra water has the potential to 1) displace other healthful foods that makes your baby feel artificially full. And secondly, as a thin liquid, it's hard to swallow. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered Dietitian, college nutrition professor, and mama of seven specializing in baby led weaning. Here on the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the competence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (42s):

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the baby weaning made easy podcast. We're talking about water today when to offer your baby water and how much I like to start every episode out with a baby led weaning tip of the day. This one's pretty straightforward tip guys. Your baby does not need extra water. Parents freak out about water, right? We're super focused on staying hydrated. I mean, look around wherever you're listening to this podcast. You probably have a water bottle at the ready, okay? But your baby is getting most of his or her fluid needs from formula and or breast milk. And then the foods that your baby will start eating that will contribute some water as well.

Katie Ferraro (1m 25s):

But for the most part, babies don't need additional water, especially early on in the weaning process, but hang tight because I'm going to talk to you about when you do introduce water, what's a good way to do it and how you can do that. But again, early on in feeding, your baby does not need water. Now this might come as a surprise to you. Wait a minute, why doesn't my baby need water? Because your baby again, is getting most of the fluid needs met from formula and or breast milk. And then the foods that you're adding are going to supply water as well. So two reasons why I don't love water for babies. First water has the potential to displace other wholesome foods that your baby can and should be eating. I used to work in adult weight management.

Katie Ferraro (2m 6s):

And many of you have probably heard this tip. If you're looking to control the amount of food you eat, one way to help prevent overeating sometimes is the dietician will say to the potential weight loss client. You know, when you're think you're hungry, you might actually just be thirsty. And it is true. The same part of our brain that controls hunger controls thirst. So as an adult, you might say, when you think you're hungry, you might actually be thirsty. When you think you want to eat something, take a big glass of water and wait 10 minutes. Okay. And the notion there is that as your drinking water, what happens is it does take up room in your stomach. Okay? And as your stomach, your abdomen, distends, it does start sending messages to your brain that starts to tell your brain, if you're listening, huh?

Katie Ferraro (2m 46s):

You're starting to feel full, slow down on eating or stop eating. Now our babies at six and seven months of age, the early eaters, they're just learning how to eat. Okay. They know what hunger feels like, but they're learning that this food stuff, they're starting to learn how to eat. That will help alleviate those feelings of hunger. Right? And one of the great benefits of baby led weaning is it allows the baby to learn how to recognize and respond to the baby's hunger and fullness cues. So we don't want to mess up that feedback loop whereby the baby's stomach is full of water and they have really tiny stomachs, right? The baby's stomach is full of water and it starts sending signals to the baby's brain. Hey, you're full don't eat. There's the potential that the baby won't learn how to respond to hunger cues with food.

Katie Ferraro (3m 30s):

So we don't want to unnecessarily fill the baby up with water for that reason. Secondly, water is a thin liquid. Your baby has only ever had thicker liquids like breast milk and or formula. So it's more challenging for your baby to swallow a thin liquid like water. They'll get the hang of it. You'll notice if you feed your baby watermelon, for example, a very high water content food. There's a lot of slurping. A lot of parents will say, God, my baby does well on a lot of different fruits, but they really gag a lot on watermelon. Well, it's because that's a thin liquid that they're learning how to handle a little bit of gagging. When you're learning how to eat is perfectly fine. It's a natural and necessary part of the learning how to eat process, but we don't want to cause the baby to unnecessarily gag by forcing them to learn how to drink water.

Katie Ferraro (4m 18s):

When as I mentioned, it's not even necessary. So again, the potential for it to displace other wholesome foods by making the baby feel artificially full that's, one drawback of feeding, extra water. Secondly, the fact that it's a thin liquid and more challenging for babies to drink compared to breast milk or formula. That's another reason why I don't love water for babies, but on top of that, additional water is not necessary. Your baby is having their fluid needs met by formula and or breast milk. Plus the foods that they're slowly learning how to eat. So I know you're thinking, well, my baby does need to learn how to drink out of a cup. Right, right. Now, your baby is very proficient at sucking out of the breast or the bottle. But our goal is to have your baby being able to drink out of an open cup with minimal spillage.

Katie Ferraro (5m 2s):

By the time the baby turns one, hate to break it to babies. Don't just wake up on their first birthday magically knowing how to drink out of an open cup. So one of the things that we're also learning how to do in the six to 12 month period, in addition to learning how to eat food is how to drink out of an open cup. And oftentimes I'll see parents practicing with a six or a seven month old baby with water in the open cup, practicing with the open cup for five minutes after each solid food feeding is definitely a good idea, but I would encourage you to do that with formula or breast milk. So the open cup that I liked for baby led weaning is called a tiny cup from ezpz. My friend and colleague, Dawn Winkleman. Who's a speech language pathologist who specializes in pediatric swelling.

Katie Ferraro (5m 46s):

She designed that baby led weaning cup, the tiny cup for ezpz. And I'm going to have her on the podcast. She's going to talk a lot more to you about the mechanics of how babies learn, how to swallow and why it's beneficial for your baby to go from breast or bottle to an open cup and why we want to skip the sippy cup. So we'll do that in a separate episode, but as you're thinking, gosh, okay, I should be practicing with the open cup. What do I practice with practice with a little bit of formula and or breast milk? Don't do water until your baby is older. I generally don't introduce free water. So water by itself to my baby until the baby is about one year of age. Now there are a few exceptions.

Katie Ferraro (6m 26s):

If you live in a hot climate, a very extreme climate, your baby may require additional water. If your baby has an underlying illness, that's causing dehydration or in particular medical courses, a baby may require additional water. But again, that would be under the guidance and the recommendation of your physician. The good majority of babies out there living in temperate climates, learning how to eat between six and 12 months of age, do not need additional water. So pretty straightforward there. I'm going to leave it at that. If you guys want more tips on how to safely introduce foods and fluids to your baby, check out my free online workshop called baby led weaning for beginners.

Katie Ferraro (7m 6s):

If you go to the show notes page for this podcast, which is BLWpodcast.com/ 24, this is episode 24 water when to offer your baby water, don't do it until they're one. Come check out the free baby led weaning for beginners workshop. Again, that's BLW podcast.com/24. Thanks for being here and I'll see you guys next time. Bye now!