Unprofessional Parenting

This story is from a little over a week ago but I was shocked to see the video recently. Apparently, one response to difficult economic times who those who use baby formula is to dilute the formula with additional water so that one can will last longer. The trouble with this is that infants very quickly succumb to “water poisoning” because their blood dilutes and sodium and potassium levels drop dramatically.

I can relate to the sticker shock of formula but it never occurred to me to dilute it with additional water. I breast fed my son for eight months and then figured I would switch to formula for the last few months until he turned one year old and could start drinking regular milk. Had I known how much he would drink and what the cost would be I probably would have just continued to breast feed until he was a year old.

That said, too much water for an infant is apparently a matter of life or death.  It’s scary to think about but when my son was little I remember arguments with well intentioned relatives who thought it was cute to let me son drink out of water bottles. It usually wasn’t much but once I discovered he had “sipped” an entire bottle of water when I left him with a relative for a couple of hours. I was angry and was never able to explain to the person why water could be bad for an infant (I didn’t know exactly why at the time - just that it wasn’t a good idea). Well, here is why:

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