Should you use filtered water or bottled water for your children?

I am not a big tap water fan. We have a brita pitcher that we keep in our fridge full at all times for everyone in the house. We have filtered water for our cats (they have a filtered fountain) and our birds get filtered water as well (many of the chemicals that are in city water can build up in a birds system and kill them sooner). Honestly, when my son was young, filtered water and being healthy was not all the rage so he got tap water. Heck, he didn't even like heated bottles so he got bottle with warm tap water. We do have one of the cleanest water systems in the country here, but you do really never know what is in (or could be in) your pipes. Now that I am more aware of that, if I have another child, they would get filtered water.

I prefer to use boiled water.It helps them to stop infecting from diseases.As diseases comes frequently through contaminated water only first.So,i suggest it is always good to give boiled water for them.I clean the milk bottle in the hot water for twice and pour clean water into the bottle.I will take more care in drinking water,food which should be given to our children. If u take care for 2 years after the baby born,then only children's live happily without any side effects.What do u say friend.

I keep hearing that filtered water is better than bottled water, frankly, I just do not know.

We all drink bottled water at home. But boil that too for my kids when they are less than a year old. Tap water in India is not safe to drink. But if it is safe where you are I think the sooner you shift from the bottled water to whatever everyone at home drinks, the better. Younger than 12 months, I'd rather be safe and stick to bottles water.

I think tap water is fine for kids- as long as it is good for adults- fluoride is in tap water (most anyways) and that is good for kids- So I think it is ok for kids to drink tap water- and it’s ok to mix it in juices.

I don't have a problem with tap water. It's treated and has the addition of fluoride, which is good for kid's teeth. Bottled water doesn't contain fluoride. But for picky parents out there, there's always the option of getting a water dispenser that uses big jugs that are purchased at water bottling stores. Or you could simply get a Brita pitcher and flush the water through that first. I don't care for store-bought bottled water simply because it's not very environmentally friendly. All of those plastic bottles are wasteful, in my opinion.

Well I suppose it depends to some extent where you live but here in the UK tap water is perfectly safe to drink - although if I was giving it to a baby I would boil it first. Whether that's necessary or not I'm not sure but it's just habit. I did that with my daughter when she was small and I do it with my grandaughter too. I think bottled water is just the biggest rip off - the only time I ever use it is if I'm travelling in a foreign country, not necessarily because their water isn't safe but just because natural changes in water from region to region can cause stomach upsets. Not dangerous ones - just inconvenient if you're travelling. In fact the doctor specifically told my daughter not to give bottled water to her baby because most of them contain sodium. Many of these bottled waters are just processed tap water anyway.

I don't even like the taste of our tap water so i wouldn't let my son drink that. We do have a water filter jug thingie that we use and it makes so much of a difference in the taste too.

Almost all bottled water is just filtered tap water. There's been a lot in the news lately about revealing the sources of bottled water. Very few are true mountain spring water, most come from the same sources as the public gets and then they filter it just like you can do at home. We have 2 Brita filter pitchers that we use all the time. Our water has a very heavy chlorine smell that I don't care for so I always filter it first. The only time I use it directly out of the tap is for boiling pasta or something else where I'm going to dump the water off anyway. As far as babys go, I would prefer to filter water for a baby. There are chemicals in tap water that I would not want my children to drink. Chlorine being the number one. I don't know if it's "unhealthy" but it certainly would make me feel a little better knowing that I tried to make it a little healthier for them. Peace of mind is worth a couple of bucks for a filter.

My baby has been drinking tap water since she was 12 months old and till date I haven't had any reason to believe that it has harmed her in any way. I am not too much of an advocate of bottled water because i feel it kind of makes your body used to just that one kind of water and than maybe when you go out your body may not take it lightly if the same water is not available. I am going to apply the same thing for my children.

For my child when he is still a baby, i use filetered boiled water for his water theraphy and milk, but after a year i just simply use filtered water. I did not encounter any problem on using those for my kid.

I don't think it's necessary to use the filtered water or bottled water. In fact we will boil the water from the tap. And after that, it's already very clean and even good for baby. I don't really trust the filter and bottled water.

some tap water have high chlorine content, perhaps this chlorine content would be the one responsible for harming our children.

Here in the Netherlands they really make the water out of the tap really clean. It's really good here and I've never had problems with it. Though I do prefer bottled water myself because it tastes better in my opinion.

I do not think there is anything wrong with tap water. When my kids were born i used boiled water. After a while when started to eat same food as us I gave them tap water. nothing ever happened to them. Even in school they are supposed to drink from fountains. they are not allowed to take water bottles to school. Even botteled water is sometimes purified ( whatever that means).

I only use filtered water (and bottled when im traveling). Even though water form the tap is prefiltered, it wont take into account the rust or damage done to the water pipes which could contaminate water. So its better to be safe than sorry.

I have no problem at all giving my children straight from the tap..Even the doctor said that it is probably better them anyway..It helps to build up their immune system, and thats a good thing so they wont be sick all the time.

I used nursery water for my son when he was a baby, because our tap water made him sick. My husband and I drank tap water that had been run through a faucet mounted filter, but it still made my son sick. Now at our new house, our water is even worse. My husband is getting ready to put a filter on the pipes so all of our water will be filtered, but he hasn't had time yet. We are also going to put the faucet filter on here, too. We've just been using filtered water that we buy at the grocery store since we moved in. We have 4 5 gallon jugs that we take in and refill and then we put them on our water cooler at home. That's the water we drink, cook with, and give the pets. The pets will be drinking our regular filtered water once we get the filter in place, and we will probably be cooking with it as well. Depending on how it tastes, we might still be giving our son the water from elsewhere because it tastes so much better than most tap water.

We do not need bottled water up here because the water supplied by the municipal authorities by way of tap connection is pure and germ free. all of us rely on this kind of water for our daily requirements. We have water in plenty and purity is assured by the administration .