Boiling Water in Malaysia and Singapore

We are going to take our 6 months old bub to the two places for travel. He is formula fed and just starts having solid food. Both requires boiling water to prepare, just wonder is it easy to ask for boiling water in the restuarants (I dont know whether they have that esp when the weather there is so hot). And is it ok for baby to drink, as I dont know whether there is any difference from the tap water in HK. Just dont know should we get the distilled water in HK and bring along our kettle and thermo. Thanks!

Whenever I have travelled with my baby I have used the mineral water available at the holiday place and used the kettle available in the hotel room (which is usually there for tea/coffee) to boil the water. Have taken two thermos's with me all the time to store the water. One to carry with me when travelling around and the other to store in the hotel after boiling.

Restuarants in both places will supply hot water but they are likely to be unfiltered. If you are ok with that, then there is nothing to be worried about.

Unboiled tap water in Singapore is safe to drink. I can't say the same for Malaysia - I always go for mineral water.


Having said that, you should always boil the water for making up the formula for babies under 1. My son always drank only boiled tap water in Singapore. Now that he is above 1, sometimes when we are out, I might give him some water provided by the restaurant but it might not necessarily be boiled. But what he drinks from home is always boiled - it's not really necessary after 1 but it's my personal choice.


The hotel's kettle will do the job. So what I would suggest is that you can fill some cooled boiled water into your baby's bottles and bring out a portable thermos flask to top up the bottle for the right amount of water/temperature just before adding in the formula.


Hope this helps! Please remember 2 points about mineral water:

1) it is not sterile - you still need to boil it

2) the sodium content of some brands might not be suitable for babies.

Thanks to all, really helpful. We will start our first trip with our bub this Sunday, really excited.