When you are baby-led weaning there is so much focus on the solid foods. What about when you are suppose to start to give your baby water. Do you give them water, juice, milk, or formula? How much should they have with solid foods, if any? 

When you are baby led weaning you usually start at about 6 months of age. At the same time you can start to offer water to your baby. You need to limit it to 4-8 oz of plain water a day. 

Below I’ll get into more details in why, what to avoid and the dangers of giving them too much water.

This is not by any means medical advice this is what I researched and have learned over my 8 years as a father of 3. You should consult your child’s doctor with any questions or concerns you have as they are better suited then I to help with specifics that you or your baby may require.

When To Start

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, water shouldn’t be given to little ones before 6 months of age. Breast milk and baby formula provides all the vital nutrients and hydration that is vital to the health of young babies. 

How Much Water

Like I said before, you need to limit their water intake to 4-8 ounces of water a day. That is basically filling a shot glass 2-4 times. Small amounts of water with their food is ok just make sure it’s small sips of water. 

To much water and your baby could suffer from water intoxication. Though rare it is still something to be aware of. Water intoxication happens when a baby ingests water to the point of electrolyte imbalances that can lead to seizures, brain damage, coma, and death. 

What About Dehydration

Between giving your baby their own water, in moderation, and still formula feeding or breast feeding until they hit 1 year of age you shouldn’t have to worry much about them getting enough fluids.

However, it is a good idea to know the signs of dehydration. Signs like:

• Diapers that stay dry for 2-3 hours, or fewer than 6 wet diapers in a 24 hour period
• More concentrated or darker yellow looking urine
• Cracked or dry lips
• Dry skin 
• No tears when they cry 
• Sunken eyes
• Soft spot on the top of their head appears sunken in  
• Lethargic or a lack of interest or energy 
  

If you see signs of dehydration you should contact the doctor. For more information What to Expect has a great article with a ton if information on dehydration in babies. 

Types Of Water 

Faucet Water

Water straight from the tap should not be used for babies under 12 months of age without boiling and cooling first. Tap water regardless of the source can have contaminates. Well water should be checked for nitrates, lead, coliform bacteria, arsenic, and manganese. Public water could have lead if your place has lead pipes. It’s recommended that when pregnant or if you have babies to test your water for contaminates. 

Regardless it’s best to filter your water in addition to other purification matters like boiling. We have always used a filter that screws straight to the faucet head and we can choose to filter or not filter. If you curious in one to use we use the PureH20 watery filter and are happy with that one. 

Bottle Water

Bottled water is not recommended due to the possibility of high levels of sodium or sulphate. 

What Drinks to Avoid

Fruit Juice

Juice, including baby juices sold by major brands, are not a good choice of drink for kids under 1 year of age. They provide no additional nutrition that a growing child needs. Most juices are full of artificial sweeteners or high in sugars, like apple juice, and can cause tooth decay. 

Cow’s Milk

Cows milks shouldn’t be given to babies under 12 months of age. Before then, cows milk can put babies at risk of intestinal bleeding. Cows milk also has too many proteins and minerals and a baby’s kidneys can’t handle that much.  

Carbonated Beverages

Drinks like soda/carbonated beverages shouldn’t not be given to babies or toddlers. Tooth decay, obesity, and other health problems. In addition to that, basically zero nutrition value. When you give drinks or food high is sugar, and artificial sweeteners you are ruining the possibility for them to develop health eating habits because once they taste sweetened beverages they are more likely to avoid water or other healthier options. 

The reality is the only thing that babies and baby led weaning babies should be drinking are formula, breast milk and water (after 6 months of age).  

Type Of Cups To Use

The benefits of using cups as part of the baby led weaning is they gain cup-drinking skills, and oral motor skills (it doesn’t imped the in the development of speech).

Open Cup 

It is suggested that you start blw children with a open cup or free-flow cup first. It teaches them the important motion of taking the liquid in their mouth then swallowing. 

Trainer Open Cup

A Doidy Cup is one type of trainer open cup. They are designed to sit at a slant and aid is kids learning to drink from a rimmed cup. The slant helps avoid spills that happen when the child would tip the cup to check the contents. It looks a little goofy but apparently it helps them learn to put the cup down correctly.

Straw Cup

After learning to drink from an open cup then you can have them learn to drink from a straw cup. 

Trainer Straw Cup

We Trained our kids to use the Munchkin Any Angle Click Lock Weighted Straw Cup. The unique thing about this one is when you tip the bottle the end of the weighted straw makes it so the straw is always in water.  What we like about it was it was leak proof. 

Cup To Avoid

Sippy Cup

These types of cups have been talked about for a while in the pediatric dentistry world. Sippy cups can cause some developmental issues within a child mouth. You can use the munchkin 360 cup if your child won’t drink from an open cup. It helps avoid spills and doesn’t interfere with their oral development like a sippy cup will. We’ve use those with all the children with great success. 

Some of this will be easy to follow and others are a little more challenging, like following what cup is best to use. When Aaliyah was just starting on solid foods I accidentally gave her a small piece of Jalapeño in some guacamole. So, I can honestly say we didn’t abide by the 4-8 oz of water on that particular day. 

All I can say is enjoy this time with them exploring all the new tastes of the world as this is the time that will lay the foundation of how they eat for years to come, and there is nothing better to cleanse that pallet then a delicious sip of water.