Babies can begin drinking small amounts of water once they are 6 months of age.
Then you can gradually increase the babies water intake to larger amounts and once they are above 1 year of age they can drink more water.
Introduce your baby to drinking from a cup or beaker from around 6 months and offer sips of water with meals.
Using an open cup or a free-flow cup without a valve will help your baby learn to sip and is better for your baby's teeth.
Newborns stomachs are tiny and giving them water can fill their tiny stomachs up and prevent the newborn from wanting to feed on formula.
Also it's easy for a newborn baby to get water intoxication as their kidneys cannot get rid of the water fast enough.
You can give your newborn a little bit of water but you should not give the newborn much water.
With a newborn it's easy for the newborn baby to get water intoxication as the babies kidneys cannot flush out the water as good and fast as a toddlers or adults body can.
Giving water to an infant can cause water intoxication, a serious condition that happens when too much water dilutes the concentration of sodium in the body, upsetting the electrolyte balance and causing tissues to swell.
It's uncommon but serious, potentially causing seizures and even a coma.
It's best not to give your newborn or baby water before 6 months of age.
At the newborn stage, breast milk or formula meets every nutritional need for health and development.
Plus, you don't want to fill up your baby on water, since she might not be hungry for feedings.
Also when you give newborns water it can fill up the babies tiny belly and also make it so the baby will feel full and not want to eat the formula which they need to thrive.
The formula provides enough water content for the newborn so water is not needed or recommended until the baby is 6 months of age or older.