Drinking water

Now that I’m coming up to six months old I am starting to eat solid food and I have noticed that a sippy cup of water appears at the table for me too.  My friends in the UK drink cooled boiled tap water, but in Dubai the tap water isn’t as high quality so it has to be cooled boiled bottled water.

I look out for the sodium (Na) and sulphur (SO or SO4) content in the water I drink. The NHS advises that the content of sodium should be less than 200mg per litre and less than 250mg/l of sulphur, but of all the labels I have checked there is nothing that comes anywhere near those levels.  Here's the results of my research to find the best bottled waters for babies readily available here in Dubai:

Ordered by lowest sodium content (mg/l)

1.           Arwa (3.3)
2.          Evian (6.5) and Acqua Panna (6.5)
3.        Al Ain (8)
4.        Masafi (10)
5.        Volvic (11.6)
6.        Aquafina (16)
7.        Nestle Purelife (18)

Ordered by lowest sulphur content (mg/l)

1. Al Ain (5)
2.  Volvic (8.1)
3. Evian (12.6)
4. Masafi (19)
5. Aqua Panna (24)
6. Nestle Purelife (22)
7. Aquafina (51)
8. Arwa (96.8)

I tend to favour Al Ain and Evian if I need to buy a smaller bottle but for our kitchen water dispenser I tend to settle for Masafi which is still pretty good as Al Ain and Evian is not available here in the 4 or 5 gallon containers.

But just to make matters more confusing I also need to take account of the bottles themselves. Two issues I am concerned with – whether the plastic contains BPA (Bisphenol A) and whether the bottle has been reused (ie. flushed out with chemicals).  Ideally I would drink water that has only been in a glass bottle as this would significantly reduce the amount of chemicals leaching into the water from its packaging as glass is pretty inert but the next best are BPA free plastic bottles. BPA is especially uptaken by the water in the heat which is why I am careful to note what the bottle is made from in this climate.

Masafi  4 gallon bottles are not refillable and therefore much less likely to be contaminated during the chemical cleaning process that most of the large 4 or 5 gallon containers undergo. Although this sounds terribly un-eco friendly I do ensure Dad recycles them. They are also BPA free so on the whole, although Masafi does not score the lowest sodium and sulphur content, on the whole it passes my strict approval process.