Which water is best for making baby formula?
Answering your questions about which waters are best for making up your baby’s formula feeds.
Following our recent post about bottle feeding and microplastics the PureH2O team thought it would be helpful if we answered some common questions about what kind of water is safe and best for making up baby formula.
Is it safe to make baby formula with reverse osmosis pure water?
In a word: yes!
To explain more fully, reverse osmosis (RO) pure water is safe for the whole family to drink. It’s water as nature intended, with human-made contaminants such as pesticides, microplastics, chemicals and drug residues removed. The RO process also removes naturally occurring impurities.
The result is pure, safe drinking water. It tastes much better than tap water, is far purer than filtered or bottled water. And it’s totally, 100% safe.
Can I use bottled water to make infant formula feeds?
No. You should not use bottled water to make up baby formula feeds. As the NHS warns:
“bottled water is not recommended for making up feeds, as it’s not sterile and may contain too much salt (sodium) or sulphate”. (NHS: How to make up baby formula.)
Besides which, microplastics are found in over 90% of bottled waters, globally. So bottled water is even more contaminated with plastics than tap water is.
Is it ok to use softened water to make up infant formula?
We’re big fans of home water softeners, because softened water is kind to skin and keeps home appliances in top condition. However, you should NEVER use artificially softened water to make up baby formula.
If you have a water softener at home you should use mains water from the tap that’s not connected to the softener (there will always be one tap in your home that is not connected to the softener) to make up your baby’s formula feeds, or use pure water if you have a water purifier.
The same goes for pets, by the way – you should not give them softened water, but they can drink RO pure water.
Save the softened water for bathing your kids (and you).
What are the benefits of using reverse osmosis pure water for bottle feeding?
For parents and caregivers interested in reducing their family’s exposure to human-made and naturally occurring contaminants and impurities, RO pure water is a great help.
Although boiling your water will do the bare essentials of killing disease causing organisms such as bacteria, viruses and parasites, it will not remove other contaminants such as microplastics, pesticides, heavy metals, drug and hormone residues.
That’s why it’s good to use reverse osmosis purified water for making up baby formula feeds as well as for washing, rinsing and sterilising baby bottles. Fortunately, under-sink water purifiers from PureH2O are effortless to run and don’t clutter up your kitchen counters.
Our PurityPRO home water purifiers typically fit in the cupboard under your sink and dispense water from a small faucet installed as standard, or one of our Quatreau multifunction taps.
How to contact PureH2O
We hope you’ve found this blog post useful. If you would you like to find out more about reverse osmosis pure water, or order a PureH2O home water purifier, please get in touch.
Our team is available by phone on 01483 617000 Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. Alternatively you can email help@pureh2o.co.uk at any time. There’s also a chat widget on the right hand side of your screen if you’d like to find out more that way. We look forward to talking to you.
Information & support
NHS breastfeeding & bottle feeding advice
NCT infant feeding support line. Call 0300 330 0700 (choose option 1) or visit their website.
You may also like to read
Bottle fed babies swallow millions of microplastics a day: 3 simple things help.