why can babies have water in formula but not actual water before 6 months?
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Newborn babies are constantly pretty close to starvation, because they have a lot of big energy demands adults don’t have. Running human brains takes a lot of energy, and they have more brain tissue per body mass than adults. Also, they’re constantly growing new flesh, which takes a lot of energy. And keeping a small body warm is harder than doing the same for a large body because of the square-cube law. If you measure what chemical forms of energy are in a baby’s blood, you’ll find that they’re producing ketones like a starving person or someone on a low-carb diet no matter what they eat (though admittedly, part of the purpose of that is because ketones are used to build new brain tissue).
As a result of this constant energy need, giving a baby any significant amount of something to eat that isn’t food is dangerous for them because it means they have less room for food in their diets and they need all they can get. Formula is food suitable for newborn babies mixed into water, so giving it to them isn’t depriving them of essential nutrition.
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