Giving baby water.

starlite_2

The avent magic cups are fab for taching babies..they have a soft rubber spout and need to be sucked, so it's not a great leap from the action of drinking from a bottle.

some interesting info on sterilising here...
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=1364&threadid=91585&stamp=060314220234

jellyhead

my health visitor tells me the water doesn't have to be boiled now, and the cups don't have to be sterilised if they haven't had milk in. baby is 7 months.

baby hates the avent magic cup, he prefers the tommee tippee one, it just has an ordinary spout, no sucking invloved and no non-drip valve.

Lillibet_2

Can't get Spud to use the Magic cups either, he's using Boots 2nd stage bottles. Can't get him to drink anything other than milk either though!!

bubbles_2

Hi Libbet,

My 7 month old also refused to drink anything, one day i diluted some apple juice with warm boiled water and he loved it. But then, he was constipated... apparently it was the apples as they are quite acidic i was told.

Now i actually peel oranges, not just the peel but the actual segments too and give him whats left lol . He loves it and i have piece of mind that he's drinking some kind of juice and its not causing constipation.

Jay-Jay_4

I've found the best cups for giving water in are those really cheap ones from the local chemist. No fancy lids, valves, two way freeflow sooper dooper palaver...... just a cup with a lid, a spout and three holes. I call it a sippy cup and they just need to tilt it at their lips rather than having to suck.

I never used bottles but isn't the advice to stop using bottles at 6 months anyway and offer all milk drinks in a cup?

If you want to use boiled water but have your kettle on frequently during the day then keep a container of water in the fridge to add to the cup. I'm not a big fan of sterilising, they need a few bugs to keep them healthy

I found that it's better to refresh the contents of the cup frequently because as baby drinks she will push bits of food into the cup/bottle. It soon gets cloudy and full of bits.

gravitytolls

I wouldn't bother with sterilising once baby is picking stuff up and putting it in the mouth.

As for water, if you're breast feeding fairly exclusively, you don't need to worry, as your body will quench thirst as well as nourish.

However, if you are breast feeding and your baby isn't used to a bottle/cup, a cup of the type suggested by Jay Jay is best, otherwise confusion will rain.

If baby gets hold of the cup, the contents will rain too.

jellyhead

lol! yep it's a messy business. roo's still using bottles for most of his milk feeds because the cup is a bit hit and miss. they are supposed to drink a pint of milk a day and as he only has 25 ounces at the most in a day i wouldn't want them in a cup, i want to see how many ounces actually go into his mouth. you're told to introduce the cup at 6 months and by 12 months to have transferred to the cup completely. the 'sippy' cup mentioned is apparently the best kind for their teeth, or an open cup. i think our sippy cup only has one hole though, it's tommee tippee, i got it from mothercare.