Why can’t babies drink water but use water on formula milk?
In: Biology
Its multiple issues, depends on dose and age, but here’s a few-
Maturity- newborns are not great at balancing their salts etc due to immature kidneys. Therefore they need salts (sodium being the big one) in their liquids and develop dangerous salt imbalances more easily – when newborns or even older babies that are still not eating solids are given water too much or watered down formula exclusively hyponatremia (low blood sodium) is the big danger.
Sugar – newborns have normally lower blood sugar than adults, but are prone to developing low sugar quickly, so need regular feeds containing sugars (formula or breastmilk).
Calories – for older babies that are starting solids, they can’t still eat and digest enough food to get all their energy that way, so need high energy liquids still (breastmilk and formula are high in fats and sugars).
Note – some naturopaths etc have at times advised elimination diets (edit- wildly restrictive, not your basic dairy etc) to breastfeeding mothers or watered down formula or water to very young infants as treatments for various issues, eczema being a big one. This is very dangerous, and its well worth knowing why!
Tldr- milk is the whole food for babies – water is just the drink component, and doesnt cut it alone.
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