what type of water for formula?

[locolala]

Yeah, my dad lives up at the top of a mountain in WV and has a fabulous well system. He has it tested every year (to the tune of 500 bucks, but hey it's his house) and he's never had any problems with it.

 

[HelenePA]

I grew up on well water, from infancy, and never had an issue. I'll ask my doc next time I go in, but they told me they prefer me to drink that over city water and even over bottled water while pregnant.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2264572

it has to do with nitrates in the water... boiling it makes it more concentrated so that is a no go too...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1638204/ here is what happens if a baby does get too many nitrates as an infant.
just another link http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/crops/00517.html

I wouldn't want your baby getting so sick over well water..I'm just letting you know there are risks of using well water... Congrats on your new baby...


ETA I drank well water with 1,2, and some of #3. I think it has to do with them being so little.

 

[Piecey]

Hospital told us no to well-water at discharge, too.

We don't have a well so it didn't matter, but they were very clear: no well water.

 

[All American]

I used to give our baby water from the fridge filter, but there were some problems with our city water, so we switched. I just buy the gallon jugs of "Drinking" water at the grocery store. I don't heat it up or anything, just room temp. When my mom came to help with the baby (she stayed for a month--normally it's just two weeks when my sister and I have our babies--and took the night feedings, put the baby on a schedule, and made me take naps ) she would just give her lukewarm water from the tap. In all three cases, our daughter (formula fed from the beginning) had no stomach issues.

 

[golfgal]

Please dont use well water for bottles.. I forget why but its a big no no

Well, technically all of our water is well water since our city taps into aquifers for the water supply. If you have a private well, test the water, problem solved.

 

[formill]

We have a private well- always used it for formula- always boiled it- we do treat our water to make it safe for drinking. I would boil town/city water though too- been too many cases of e-coli etc in town/city water. If we were going somewhere I would put some powdered formula in the bottles and take bottled water - then did not have to worry about keeping formula refrigerated could just mix and shake and it was a good temperature.

 

[hulagirl87]

thank you to all that replied!!! I'm more confused now though but my question now is this... if you do boil your water, do you boil enough to make bottles for the day, let it cool down and then let it sit out? or do you refridgerate it? I'm beginning to wish that feeding "naturally" had worked for me

 

[HelenePA]

IF your going to boil it do NOT make it while its hot... that would just be very icky and probably grow lots of nasty stuff in there... wait til its room temp then make it then put it in the fridge but NOT on the door its not cold enough there. You can reheat it as you need it. Either under running hot water (your water bill WILL go up) in a cup of hot water, (works best if there is only an ounce or 2 in the bottle), nuke it (not recommended but I think most of us have done it at one time or another! Shake well and test on wrist!) in a pan of hot water on the stove, make sure you test it to make sure its not too hot if you do it this way!! Just keep the same pot of water on the stove you dont need to replace just keep adding to it.

 

[DMickey28]

For my DS#1 I just used tap water. In South Florida and Massachusetts ... he never had a problem. We used bottled water when we traveled but that was really just fo convinence sake.

I am glad I found this thread since it never even crossed my mind but we are on a well this time. Luckily we just bought the house in October so I have a very recent water test done that I need to look up to see if I can use the water this time.

 

[dawson5]

I BF all of my boys but when they needed a bottle we used distilled water. I would boil a large amount and keep it in a jug in the fridgeor counter. If you do go this route, make sure you don't use all of the water. The stuff on the bottom is nasty and will give baby a stomach ache. (I learned the hard way.)

We never microwaved a bottle either. Pre-internet, my mother in law told me about the hotspots and killing of nutrients. What we would do,(she did actually, she babysat while my boys were younger) she would microwave a cup of water and set the bottle in it for a few minutes to heat it.

 

[PatsMom]

I mostly nursed for the first year but did supplement with formula. I used to pre-measure the powder into the bottle and then just add tap water to it. If I was somewhere that it wasn't convenient to get tap water, I would use bottled water. I never boiled or sterilized anything. When I asked her pediatrician about boiling and sterlizing nipples he made the very wise observation that I didn't boil or sterilize mine!

As for well water, I suppose that it depends on what is in your well. I would trust my drilled well over most municipal water supplies. Because of all the granite in the area, I have been tested for radon in the water as well as the general water tests. I am basically on the same aquifer that Poland Spring pumps in southern Maine so if you are using bottled Poland Spring, you are using pretty much what comes out of my well!

 

[HelenePA]

I mostly nursed for the first year but did supplement with formula. I used to pre-measure the powder into the bottle and then just add tap water to it. If I was somewhere that it wasn't convenient to get tap water, I would use bottled water. I never boiled or sterilized anything. When I asked her pediatrician about boiling and sterlizing nipples he made the very wise observation that I didn't boil or sterilize mine!

As for well water, I suppose that it depends on what is in your well. I would trust my drilled well over most municipal water supplies. Because of all the granite in the area, I have been tested for radon in the water as well as the general water tests. I am basically on the same aquifer that Poland Spring pumps in southern Maine so if you are using bottled Poland Spring, you are using pretty much what comes out of my well!

Deer Park comes from my tap!

 

[PatsMom]

Deer Park comes from my tap!

Isn't it awesome to have bottled water coming out of your faucet! We really laugh when someone asks if all we have is tap water.

 

[HelenePA]

Isn't it awesome to have bottled water coming out of your faucet! We really laugh when someone asks if all we have is tap water.

I know! And they dont even filter ours... sadly I do still buy water for the kids school lunches... I need to find refillable water bottles that are small maybe I'll go look now... save me some money by bottling my own

 

[Minnesota!]

Tap water. Cold or room temp. I have never heated a bottle, boiled a bottle, boiled the water, etc.

I did keep a few bottles of water in the diaper bag for when we were traveling. And, when they had constipation issues, I did bottled for a while, too. seemed to help.

 

[Planogirl]

I always bought bottled water but we lived out in the sticks and no one wanted to drink the water out there. I did heat up the bottle a little each time though and I bought the premixed stuff when I could too! That stuff was wonderful but pricey.

 

[minkydog]

thank you to all that replied!!! I'm more confused now though but my question now is this... if you do boil your water, do you boil enough to make bottles for the day, let it cool down and then let it sit out? or do you refridgerate it? I'm beginning to wish that feeding "naturally" had worked for me

AWw, don't feel too bad. A lot of women find themselves in similar shoes. Formula isn't poison and plenty of people in our generation were exclusively formula-fed. We didn't aaallllll turn out to be morons.

If you really must boil the water, you might as well boil a lot. Let it cool, then make up enough formula for the day. Why waste time making formula for individual bottles? Keep it in a clean pitcher or just make up all your bottles at once. The milk will stay good in the fridge for 24 hours. You can choose to warm or not warm. When mine were very little, I warmed bottles by heating up water in the microwave, then sitting the bottle in the very hot water for a minute or two. Once the bottle was tepid, they got the bottle. As they got older (4months or so) I just took it straight from the fridge and they didn't care. If anything they were happier to get their bottles sooner.

 

[cats7494]

I bf'd my girls (mainly because it was easier and cheaper for us, lol) but when I did use a bottle we used tap water. However, if we were not at home, I did prefer bottled water.

In my opinion - unless your tap water has been studied and has been shown to be really bad - there is no need for boiling.

Edited to add: BTW - I was not bf'd and neither was my brother and we are pretty successful. I am a civil rights investigator and my brother is a physics teacher.

Good luck! Enjoy that little one!

 

[hulagirl87]

I bf'd my girls (mainly because it was easier and cheaper for us, lol) but when I did use a bottle we used tap water. However, if we were not at home, I did prefer bottled water.

In my opinion - unless your tap water has been studied and has been shown to be really bad - there is no need for boiling.

Edited to add: BTW - I was not bf'd and neither was my brother and we are pretty successful. I am a civil rights investigator and my brother is a physics teacher.

Good luck! Enjoy that little one!

Thank you She is a joy! And I wasn't bf'd either and I think that I turned out ok.