Tap water or nursery water?

Just wondering if anybody else uses tap water for babies bottles? My mother in law has been bugging me like crazy since the girls were born saying I shouldnt be using tap water and that I need to buy nursery water. I really cant afford to constantly be buying water. We drink our tap water and it doesnt hurt us so I thought it would be fine for them and it doesnt seem to bother them one bit. Just wondering what everyone else uses.

 

My mother in law did the same thing!!! Everytime I leave from her house she tries to get me to take bottled water!! I always used tap! I read that it was fine as long as you are not on well water.

 

I used tap water. My friends' ped told her that if drink tap water, then it is OK to use the tap water. Basically, if you have tap water that you can't drink, like well water, to use bottled, but otherwise, tap is fine. To me, Nursery water is simply a rip off to get new parents to buy something unnessicary(sp?).

 

Tap water! You can ask your pediatrician for a list of water quality in your area (by zip code) or your water company can provide it for you. One good thing about tap water is flouride. I have a friend with well water and she always used both bottled spring water or her well water and her children all hd to take flouride supplements because their teeth were not great (not hereditary in this case, parents have no cavities!) with soft enamel. Some people think flouride is evil, but they think lots of things are terrible and live life in fear of the world. You can get your water report and make the decision for yourself based on your beliefs, that's what I did.

Kelly

 

In the beginning I boiled, but by six months I really think tap water is fine. That is what we use.

 

Freakin' MIL's when will they stop with the bad advice? LOL We use tap water but have a pur filter pitcher that we leave out on the counter.

 

I used boiled water for the first 3 months due to prematurity and the recommendation from our Ped. And then I used Nursery Water for the rest of the time they were on bottles. Even now, they get water from a filter. I dont drink water out of the tap and so they dont either.

 

we used bottled until our fridge filter was hooked up when the twins were a month old...I'm sure it was safe but I just didn't like the taste of it....

 

We have well water and I'm guessing our landlady hasn't had it tested in decades. DH drinks it from the tap but I drink it filtered. We filtered and boiled it for the babies but now we're using distilled water since it's less work and not that expensive (cheaper than nursery water!) compared to the amount of work. But if we had "normal" water I'd just double-check with the pedi as a pp suggested to make sure it's fine, and go with that. Much easier!

 

QUOTE(KellyJ @ May 9 2009, 07:39 PM) [snapback]1307233[/snapback]
One good thing about tap water is flouride.


I may be wrong, but doesn't nursery water have added flouride?

 

Buy a gallon jug of purified water, and use it once. Then, when MIL is not looking fill it back up with tap water.

 

Not all tap water has flouride, for instance we have a private well. so for us it was best to use nursery water.
If you have public water with a large treatment plant etc, your tap water is fine!

Maybe educating your MIL about babies flouride needs (do your babies even have teeth yet??) and the expense would help the issue go away ?

 

We always used tap water. If you are on a well it might be more of a concern, but as far as I know, city tap water is fine.

 

This is America. Our city water is pretty safe. That being said, I did use filtered water for the girls. I just had a Pur filter pitcher on the counter and filled from there. For both boys, I use water straight from the tap.

One thing you shouldn't do though is use hot water from the tap. The hot water can dissolve and carry minerals and other items from within the pipes that you don't want in the bottles.

 

QUOTE(EmilyorMLE @ May 9 2009, 11:20 PM) [snapback]1307399[/snapback]
I may be wrong, but doesn't nursery water have added flouride?


Yes, it has fluoride which was a benefit for us.

 

Do you have city water (additional fluoride/filters/etc?) or well water? I ask because I grew up in the boonies in Florida and we had a well. (My parents still do and a septic tank) and the water was a little "rusty". We drank from it all the time. My parents got a water softener installed and their tap water tastes just like ours does, living in the "big city". Where are you at in Florida? If you're in one of the major cities, I'm pretty sure that your water will be filtered and fluorinated and clorinated too.

We never boiled water, we used tap water for our munchkins. We would warm it up though, by turning the warm tap on!

 

I used Nursery Water for the first few months.

 

When we lived in the counry we used bottled water but when we moved into town we used tap water.

Penny

 

We're going with the AAP recommendations (and EWG) and avoiding fluoridated water until they are a little older:

http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/infant/

The EWG is calling for an investigation of Nursery Water for claiming that fluoridated water is good for infants, when in actuality it can be toxic and lead to fluorosis.
http://www.ewg.org/node/25951

Your tap water probably has less fluoride than Nursery Water and by everything I've read, tap water is, in most cases, fine for the formula and is better for the baby than Nursery Water. Our tap water here, however, doesn't even pass my standards for my own drinking. Until we get a good filter, we buy purified water for all of us, including our cat.

 

Thanks for pointing that out about flouridated water... I almost wrote the same thing! If you look at the side of a tube of toothpaste, it says not to let people swallow it... flouride is a toxin and not necessary for little ones AT ALL. That being said, the small amounts found in tap water probably won't do any harm, but it is fraudulant for nursery water makers to claim it's good for babies, and that has always bothered me.
We used tap water, not from a well.

 

We never used tap water have only used bottled water. Even now, they still get bottled water. We are moving to a new house with a natural spring well water so we might stop the bottled water and give them that but I never use tap water except to cook with.

 

Tap water here as well! DH's aunt-who has never been married/had kids said we should use bottled water(do not get me started on her....). I asked the pedi and he said as long as it's not well water-we were good to go. In the very beginning, I did buy bottled water-but that got old VERY QUICKLY!