By Richard Mesquita, AquaMD

What's probably the easiest way a parent puts their child's health at risk? By allowing them to drink and bathe in water that is unsafe. In fact, children are more susceptible to the effects of contaminated drinking water. How can that be? Pound-for-pound, infants drink more than twice as much water as the average American adult? For example, a 155-pound adult male would have to drink 35 12-ounce glasses of water to match the water intake of one infant living solely on formula.

And you may not know young children need 60 percent more water every day than adults.

Infants and children differ from adults not only in size, but internally, meaning since their organs are not fully developed, they are more vulnerable to water and environmental contaminants. Exposures to contaminants like lead are known to cause permanent damages to a child's nervous system. Exposure through the ingestion of chemicals in water may interfere with physiological processes of the child, including the immune, respiratory and neurological systems.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets standards for maximum contaminant levels or MCLs in our drinking water. But the fact that your water meets the EPA standards doesn't always mean it's safe either. Lower levels of toxins in water have a greater impact on children. And many times, it is the chemicals companies use to treat their water that actually makes it harmful for you.

What can you do? First, find out what is in your water. If a specific problem is found, you can remove it with the appropriate water treatment system (unfortunately, no system exists that treats every problem).

Just don't fall into the trap of thinking your water is safe because it looks, tastes or smells good. Time and again, we find dangerously contaminated water typically looks, tastes and smells fine. That's because dangerous levels of harmful contaminants are measured in parts per million or billion. They simply cannot be detected the by human senses.

So take the time to find out what's in your water in order to protect your child's health.