Why not give babies water to drink?

While adults need to be reminded to drink more water and maintain body water, babies are very different from us. Their bodies are not developed enough to consume even a small amount of water, but in many cases can even lead to death.

There are times when drinking only water can be deadly, even if only very little.

According to BusinessInsider, an average healthy adult body has about 55-60% water. On the other hand, this figure in babies is about 75% on average. And this difference is why babies should not drink water from any source before they are at least 6 months old.

The threat to babies comes not only from the direct addition of water.

You see, everyone's kidneys have limits on the amount of water it can handle. Breaking that limit, excess water will return and dilute the salt or sodium in the blood.

When your blood drops below 11g sodium per 3.79 liters, you fall into a condition called Hyponatremia (hyponatremia) . It happens when your cells try to return to normal sodium by absorbing more water and then consequently stretching like a ball, causing complications like confusion, vomiting and muscle spasms. .

Hyponatremia is common in marathon runners, people who drink too much and too fast in a race but do not provide the necessary amount of sodium to balance the blood. And if you continue to drink, the excess water will eventually go to the cells in your brain. At this point, you have been in danger of water poisoning, affecting about 200,000 Americans each year.

It happens when your brain cells get swollen, putting pressure inside your skull. That can lead to seizures, brain damage and - in the worst case - death.

But don't worry, dying of water poisoning is extremely rare for an adult. An adult will have to drink 9.46-18.93 liters of water every few hours to fall into that dangerous situation.

But for babies, that's another story.Their kidney size is half that of adults. Therefore, they cannot keep a lot of water, and only a small amount of water can cause problems.

On top of that, their kidneys are not developed enough to filter water properly. Therefore, any source of water entering the body ends in the circulatory system, where they thin the blood of the newborn and increase the water content from 7 to 8%.

But the threat comes not only from the direct addition of water. In fact, most cases of water poisoning in babies do not even involve a glass of water. A common mistake is when people accidentally dilute powdered milk for children , or when parents play and . dip their child up and down in the pool, resulting in babies swallowing too much too much water.

It is important that if your child is showing signs of water poisoning , take them to the hospital immediately, where the doctor will provide some form of liquid, such as intravenous saline, to bring the sodium concentration of children return to normal.