• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Water Intoxication: Why Can’t Babies Drink Water?

December 2, 2022 by Deborah Bloomfield

“Drink more water” is something that’s drilled into us as adults partial to salty food and hangovers. There’s been a lot of debate of late as to how much water you should drink – but did you know that for babies, the life elixir can be dangerous?

While most people are aware that babies need either breast milk or formula, it’s good to be aware of the risks of water when it comes to feeding tiny humans and their not-yet-fully-cooked kidneys.

Advertisement

What is water intoxication?

Water intoxication is the name given to a condition brought on by the consumption of excessive water. It can lead to confusion, psychosis, seizures, and even death. As adults, we’d need to consume vast quantities of water to bring about the potentially fatal sodium changes seen in water intoxication, but for tiny babies, it only takes a little.

Why can’t babies drink water?

Physicians from the John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore say that babies younger than six months old should never be given water on its own as a drink, reports Reuters. The reason is that although water intoxication is rare, it can be brought on in infants whose kidneys are not yet fully developed.

Without fully functioning kidneys, giving too much water to an infant can cause their bodies to release sodium, which is crucial for proper nerve function. The condition brought on by sodium loss is called hyponatremia, and it can be deadly.

water intoxication infants

A child’s kidneys should be fully formed and better able to tolerate water after one year. Image credit: Spass / Shutterstock.com

Water intoxication in babies

The brain is one of the first areas affected when water intoxication takes hold, which is why drowsiness and confusion are common early symptoms. Unfortunately, with the symptoms being subtle, water intoxication may go unnoticed until it has become more severe.

According to Dr Christopher Carrubba, who spoke to Parents.com, other symptoms of water intoxication in a baby can include:

  • Dizziness
  • Lethargy
  • Confusion
  • Swelling of the face and limbs
  • More than eight wet diapers in a day

Avoiding water intoxication in infants

The most common risks for water intoxication in infants are being given water at too early an age, or through over-dilution of formula. Spreading awareness as to why babies can’t drink water can tackle the first issue, and the latter can be avoided by making sure to always check the instructions for preparing formula before feeding it to babies.

Can babies ever be given water?

There are some circumstances in which it’s appropriate to give older infants water, said pediatrician Dr Jennifer Anders to Reuters Health. As a constituent part of formula is one, but physicians may also recommend it for certain situations such as heat exposure or constipation.

If you’re concerned about an infant and water intoxication, speak to your healthcare provider for advice.

All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.  

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Life insurers shift to pre-pandemic norms after COVID vaccine roll-outs
  2. Inspiration4 crew, meet outer space: SpaceX’s first all-civilian mission launches to orbit
  3. Democrats mobilize to extend government funding, avert shutdown
  4. We Can Make Oxygen On Mars So Reliably That It Will Sustain Human Exploration

Source Link: Water Intoxication: Why Can't Babies Drink Water?

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Easter Island Was Never As Isolated As We Thought – Study Puts That “Strange Argument” To Bed
  • If Birds Are Dinosaurs, Why Are None As Big As T. Rexes?
  • Psychologists Demonstrate Illusion That Could Be Screwing Up Our Perception Of Time
  • Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?
  • Scientists Think They’ve Pinpointed Structural Differences In Psychopaths’ Brains
  • We’ve Found Our Third-Ever Interstellar Visitor, Orcas Filmed Kissing (With Tongues) In The Wild, And Much More This Week
  • The “Eyes Of Clavius” Will Be Visible On The Moon Today, Thanks To Clair-Obscur Effect
  • Shockingly High Microplastic Levels Found On Remote Mediterranean Coral Reef Island
  • Interstellar Object, Cheesy Nightmares, And Smooching Orcas
  • World’s Largest Martian Meteorite Up For Auction Could Reach Whopping $2-4 Million
  • Kimalu The Beluga Whale Undergoes Pioneering Surgery And Becomes First Beluga To Survive General Aesthetic
  • The 1986 Soviet Space Mission That’s Never Been Repeated: Mir To Salyut And Back Again
  • Grisly Incident In Yellowstone National Park Shows Just How Dangerous This Vibrant Wilderness Can Be
  • Out Of All Greenhouse Gas Emitters On Earth, One US Organization Takes The Biscuit
  • Overly Ambitious Adder Attempts To Eat Hare 10 Times Its Mass In Gnarly Video
  • How Fast Does A Spacecraft Need To Go To Escape The Solar System?
  • President Trump’s Cuts To USAID Could Result In A “Staggering” 14 Million Avoidable Deaths By 2030
  • Dzo: Hybrids Beasts That Are Perfectly Crafted For Life On Earth’s Highest Mountains
  • “Rarest Event Ever” Had A Half-Life 1 Trillion Times Longer Than The Age Of The Universe – How Did We See It?
  • Meet The Bille, A Self-Righting Tetrahedron That Nobody Was Sure Could Exist
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version