**Please, do not feed tap water to your babies!**

Excitedtostart

rkto:

My 5.5 week old eats almost 4oz every 3hours.  My doctor is okay with that.   Sometimes she still wants more, but really she just wants to sick so we give her water.  She takes formula and sleeps 5.5hrs every night.  She doesnt nap well in the daytime.

 PLEASE, please, please do not give your daughter tap water. PLEASE.

1. A babies suck reflex is automatic - they're not sucking because they're actually thirsty, it's an innate action. It's biology/mother nature / evolution - if you were breastfeeding, this constant nursing would build your supply. We have other ways to feed beyond breastfeeding though, so it's not necessary. 

2. Babies kidneys are not fully developed. They continue to develop beyond their first year of life. When you drink a glass of water, your kidneys decide what to keep to stay hydrated, and what to use to get rid of waste (in your pee). Her kidneys don't know that yet, so they just pass along whatever comes to them. By doing this, they're putting out stuff that isn't waste - sodium mostly, but some potassium too. Your heart is a chemical-electrical motor, it works based on how much sodium and potassium are in your system. Too much, or not enough, that pump will not work.

3. Remember in chemistry class when you had a solution of super-concentrated solution, and a solution of very dilute concentration? And if there was a permeable membrane in between the two, the concentrations would even out? This will happen in your system too. A baby's system doesn't know how much of each electrolyte it needs, so when it encounters a solution like tap water, it tries to fix it. But it can't, it's not developed enough yet. What happens is it pees out too many vital electrolytes (sodium, potassium and phosphorous as well as a few others), and in an attempt to equalize the concentrations it shifts everything around. This causes hypotonia and can cause cell lysis - basically, red blood cells break apart. 

Feeding a child tap water, bottled water, anything other than breast milk or formula is excruciatingly dangerous, and it will kill a child. It will kill them. I'm not trying to make you upset, but this isn't just something that maybe you shouldn't do. Water intoxication is deadly. Hyponatremia and hypokalemia (too little salt and potassium) will stop her heart. PLEASE, no more tap water.