A small patient in the clinic The last day of 2015, the clinic came a baby named Yangyang, bright eyes and long eyelashes, so cute that people can not help but want to kiss, but the baby is a little skinny, the mother is worried that Yangyang was born a fat boy of eight pounds, know that breastfeeding is the best way of feeding, so has been adhering to breastfeeding, the mother’s milk is very good, and the baby did not give birth to anything! The mother’s milk was very good, and the baby did not have any diseases, but he grew thinner and thinner, and the mother was anxious as she saw the fat boy grow into a bean sprout. After detailed questioning and physical examination, Dr. Zhang finally found the “culprit”, it turns out that from the birth of Yang Yang mother always feed him water many times a day, think that this can make the baby does not get hot, know that because of their frequent feeding of water led to the baby’s nutritional deficiencies, Yang Yang’s mother felt very remorseful. Does exclusive breastfeeding mean that you don’t even need to feed your baby water? The World Health Organization and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, i.e., babies should be fed with no food or drink other than breast milk, including water, and continue to be breastfed with appropriate complementary foods after 6 months until 2 years of age or beyond. Yes, you read that right, babies exclusively breastfed for 6 months do not need to be fed water. When babies are given exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, breastmilk contains all the nutrients and trace elements such as fat, lactose, protein, vitamins and other nutrients that babies need from birth to 6 months of age along with sufficient amount of water that babies need. The main component of breastmilk is actually water, which reaches more than 80%, and this water is generally able to satisfy the needs of baby’s metabolism without the need to feed additional water. Even in the hot summer, if the mother’s milk is sufficient, the water in the breast milk can fully meet the baby’s needs, without the need to feed additional water. Moreover, the baby’s stomach capacity is very small, especially the newborn stomach capacity is as big as a ping-pong ball, just a few days before birth is as big as a glass ball, feeding water means that the baby’s number of times and the amount of breast milk may be reduced, which will affect the baby’s intake of calories and nutrients, in common parlance, is “drinking a watery full”. If the baby’s sucking stimulation decreases, it will also cause a decrease in breast milk secretion, resulting in insufficient breast milk. Guangdong mothers have the habit of giving their babies to drink herbal tea, but the composition of the herbal tea varies, may contain a variety of substances that are not suitable for small babies, or may increase the metabolic burden on the baby’s gastrointestinal and renal, pure breastfeeding babies do not even need to drink water, and even more is not recommended to drink herbal tea. When the baby is sick, such as diarrhea or fever, the need for water intake may change, and you need to take your baby to the doctor, who will examine your baby and make reasonable recommendations.