Baby is a special group which needs parents’ good care, even drinking water.
Water is a kind of macro-nutriments. It is just inferior to oxygen on maintaining life and more important than food. Human can live without eating any food for several weeks and even several months, but without water, people will die within a few days. In addition to convey nutrition and excrete the waste between organs, water also ①participates in the whole process of metabolism; ②adjusts temperature of human; ③maintain blood volume; ④maintains normal secretion of the gland and other physiological functions. Because water accounts for 70%-80% of baby’s weight, and 60% of adult’s weight, therefore, it is more important for infants and young children demand for water than adults do. Usually we need to pay special attention to infants and young children for supplying water to them (mainly water-drinking). Following we may discuss several questions about how to feed baby and young children with water.
1. What kind of babies wants to drink water?
Baby cannot tell when he feels thirsty. Therefore mother and other child-minders must observe carefully. If baby is lapping up his lips with tongue, or baby’s mouth and tips are dry, or there’s no urine on the diaper when it is the time to change diaper, etc. All these signs show that baby needs to drink water.
2. What kind of water is the healthiest?
Prefer the boiled water without sweet taste. Because baby drinks the water with sweet taste (beverage), gradually he does not like to be breast-fed. It is not good for baby’s growth. Especially not to give beverages which contain artificial additive to baby, because the artificial additive will stimulate the gastro-intestinal tract of baby. Slightly it will cause discomfort and hamper baby’s assimilation and severely it will cause convulsion.

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