RO/DI+Baby=Hospital

[dugg]

Just a word of caution for those of you with babies. I have been using my RO/DI water for mixing formula for the last 4 months thinking i was doing the baby a favor. It turned out not to be such a favor. Ian spent this last weekend in the hospital getting fluids through an IV. The doctor determined that his problem was low electrolyte levels due to using the RO/DI to mix his formula. It took 2 days of IV fluids, and another 3 days of pedialyte and Gatorade to get his electrolytes back up where they should be. They doctor told us from here on, to use tap water for atleast one bottle per day if not all of his bottles. He had been fine up until i changed out the DI resin last week and brought the TDS levels back from around 5 down to 0. About 4 days after changing the resin out, he started running a fever that just kept getting worse no matter what we did to bring it down. He is doing fine now, but it was a pretty rough weekend for him all over too clean of water.

[aznlmpulse]

Sorry to hear about your baby dugg. It's a relief that he's doing better now.

There's an ongoing debate as to whether or not RO/DI is safe/good for you to drink. No one's (adults) really have had any immediate health issues with it, but I'd say that your experience says it all.

bottled water is usually RO though.

[papagimp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10140262#post10140262 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aznlmpulse
No one's (adults) really have had any immediate health issues with it, but I'd say that your experience says it all.

Adults don't rely on formula/water mixes, we drink lot's of other stuff. That really sucks dugg, but man is that a good piece of information to store in the brain for a later date.

[dugg]

Yup, the difference between him and someone older is that the RO/DI is all he was getting. When we got his brother, he was already 6 months old and was getting juices plus the formula, so he still got his electrolytes.

He is doing great now, other than getting a little spoiled over being rocked to sleep every time he took a nap for the last 5 days lol. He seems to think that should be the routine around here now lol.

I just thought that since there have been several babies born into the club recently, that i would let everyone know before they got to spend some time in the hospital themselves. We really had the doctors puzzled for a while there. They tested him for everything they could think to test, but the only thing that came back wrong was his electrolyte levels. I am going to be using tap water from here on. I am on well water anyway, and the TDS straight from the tap is only 147. If your tap water is really bad, just use RO water only, no DI.

[1SickReefer]

This should be a sticky so many others can see this info! So glad to hear everything is fine now.

[mskohl]

Plus, by not using tap water, you miss the flouride that's good for developing teeth (though, you don't want too much, like swallowing toothpaste, that'll change the color of their adult teeth).

Sorry you had to go through that, but at least they figured it out.

[papagimp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10140653#post10140653 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mskohl
Plus, by not using tap water, you miss the flouride that's good for developing teeth (though, you don't want too much, like swallowing toothpaste, that'll change the color of their adult teeth).


That's me, lot's of flouride as a kid, but I'll tell ya what, with everything I've been smacked with in the face, I've yet to chip a single tooth, lol.

[Prater]

Dugg,

Glad he is ok. Jennifer wont even let me use water from the filtered fridge for Noah. She only uses tap water for mixing his lemonade now, and the formula when he was smaller.

[dugg]

I grew up on well water with no floride, and my teeth are almost all crowns now. Both of these kids get daily vitamin drops with floride.

I just finished re plumbing my RO/DI system so that the only thing on the DI now is the tank reserve water. The ice maker and the faucet are RO only now. Probably will save tons on DI resin anyway.

[DizziDezi2]

Im glad your baby is ok! That must have been a nightmare for you!

[PITSTOP]

I'm amazed that the formula didn't ad enough back to the RO/DI

[Serra]

Dugg,

Glad he is okay. That is so scary when babies are sick. How man new gray hairs did you get? Give him an extra nursy hug from Sheryl.

[dugg]

New grey hairs? Any new hairs i get these days are grey on a good day lol. My hair is skipping the grey stage and going straight to white. If not for just for men hair color, i'm sure it would be all white by now lol.

Thanks everyone, he's none the worse for the wear now though. He has it pretty rough though. Because of my wife and son working at the hospital, they had to test him for everything under the sun. Even things babies don't normally get just to rule everything out.

And here is the don't feed your baby RO/DI water poster child for 2007 lol. They didn't have anything in the pediatric ward big enough to fit him lol, so he had to wear the smallest big kids stuff they had.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a151/dugg/hospital6-07.jpg

[Eekee]

What a cute and happy little patient! Glad he's okay and thanks for the warning.

[Dtking]

Thanks for the thread!... I have a baby due in December and I was going to do the same thing!! Sorry you had to find out the bad way, glad the baby and family are doing better!!!!

-Dustin

[TulsaReefer]

Please don't take any diagnosis given to someone in potentially a different situation and then try to apply it to your own situation. When it comes to medical advice, it's best to depend on your own trusted medical professional, not someone else’s.

One reason I say this is that there are many sources that contradict this warning not to use RO/DI water, and some of them are from what I would consider authoritative sources. For example, the American Dental Association, has published that they actually recommend the use of bottled, RO, deionized, or distilled water for baby formula to help prevent potential for enamel fluorosis. See here where ADA makes this recommendation: Infants, Formula and Fluoride (http://www.ada.org/public/topics/fluoride/infantsformula.asp) And here the Mayo clinic discusses infant formula, and mentions using bottled or distilled water, and certainly doesn't warn against it: Infant formula: The next best thing to breast-feeding (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/infant-formula/PR00058)


My point is not to refute a doctors diagnosis, I'm not a medical doctor myself. My point is that before you take the advice given to someone else by a doctor for a situation that may not be your own, see your own doctor first. I'm really glad it all turned out for the better, I have children myself and know how distressing it can be when they are sick.

[cmc0814]

What a cute kid!!! I have some nice birdsnest frags if you want to trade!

[dugg]

cmc, while a full nights sleep does sound wonderful, i wouldn't trade this frag for Paul's tank x 2 billion lol. He's a one of a kind coral and #1 on the protected species list around here lol.

[cmc0814]

That's good to hear. :) You're lucky to have one (plus, I couldn't imagine the shipping anyway).