help my 12 month old drink water

[maptome]

DD started eating solids about a month ago, and she will not drink water. She never took a bottle (EBF). I've tried different types of cups, she just pushes it away. I've tried sucking water into a draw and dropping it in her mouth, but she just grabs it. She just doesn't like water. I've been thinking of giving her diluted coconut water. It's a big issue because she gets constipated. On top of not drinking water, she doesn't eat vegetables, but she likes fruit, dairy, meat, and grains. Right now, the only liquid she gets is breastmilk, watermelon (I know it's not technically a liquid), pool water, and bath water. The only reason why she poops now is watermelon.

Any tips on how to get her to drink water? And/or a list of foods that you've found to be non-constipating? Or other liquids? I don't want to give her juice, but I was thinking of giving her diluted apple juice, and slowly diluting it more and more if she drinks it.

[Knitting Mama]

Pears are supposed to be really good at loosening up constipation, and prunes.

I wish I had advice for you on the water, sorry, I don't.

[pbjmama]

How about ice in a friendly form? Not water but probiotic might help her too.

[AndtheStars]

DS (12 mos) has always really liked water so I can't help you there. I know that he really likes water when I add a splash of mint tea to it. I too don't want to start down the juice path and the one time I added a splash of juice to his water, he wouldn't drink it. Maybe since she is familiar with the taste of watermelon, you could add some watermelon juice to water and try that. Is she interested in holding a sippy cup herself? I know that DS will drink much more if I let him be in charge of the cup. It can get messy sometimes but the more that he practices, the better he is. I also found that he's much more likely to drink by himself if I take the spill preventers out of the sippies. Again, a little messier but he has a much easier time getting liquid. He doesn't understand how hard he has to suck to get liquid if the preventers are in. HTH! Good luck!

[texmati]

I also have this issue with my 10 month old. We now put an ounce of bm so it looks white, but we really need to teach him to drink water.

[texaspeach]

ds won't drink from a sippy cup/straw cup but he will drink from an open cup. he also likes to grab it and stick his hand in it (the cat does the same thing) so I have to be careful. I can usually get him to take a few sps that way though. if you drink more water, it may increase the water in your milk - if it has been very hot you might be slightly dehydrated and not know it.

[EdnaMarie]

My daughter really prefers an open cup (she's 16 months). I hate it and it's messy and she gets wet but at least she's drinking.

What about soup on a spoon?

[confustication]

My youngest is *just* starting to drink water now- and he still much prefers nursing. I also prefer that he get his fluids from breast milk for now. I have started to offer very dilute apple juice when he is constipated (1 oz juice, 3 oz water) and for him- that helps a lot- and in a short time frame. While we don't offer juice to any of the kids on a constant basis (it is a treat here, not a thirst quencher) I also don't see it as a horrible thing to be avoided at all costs.

I took the same approach with my two year old, and he happily started drinking water alone at about 15 months- before that it was dilute juice for a treat or breast milk.

Also, I LOVE the nuby soft spout sippies, my kids transition pretty well with those then on to other options fairly quickly.

[Maine Mama Doula]

Does she drink other things from a cup? Or is it just water that she does not like? We made the mistake of juice with my oldest, so I just "flavor" her water with juice because she refuses to drink water. I've often been fed up and said, if you're thirsty, you'll drink water, and then she doesn't, so I'm just at the place where I dilute all juice or just "flavor" the water. Coconut water would certainly help with the BMs. We make fresh juice here too in the blender and strain, so watermelon/mint would be an option.

[dahlialia]

Have you tried an open cup? DD is fine with those, also with sports bottles, and those juice box-style rubbermaid bottles.

[tzs]

we just did the open cup. get a small one like a shot glass or votive holder that's easy for them to grab and just put tiny bits at a time in there.

but even though we were doing open cup i still had some non-valve sippys on hand and pulled them out just when i didn;t have a clean open cup. it took her a while to learn it, they have to suck to get the water out...it's just another (pointless) thing to learn.

a friend's kid had a clean canteen the other day at the beach and she was refusing her sippy and kept trying to get at it. i might try look into one of those for travel.

as far as flavor, i dunno, i'd just keep offering water in the cup and if he refuses then fine...it's just like any other food he refuses. that way he might learn that when we drink, it's water. no giving in just like you wouldn't pull out a cookie if he didn't want the food you offered.
they say bm has enough h2o in it anyway and if you;re giving him alot of watermelon as a high water content fruit that's great. i do that on hot days also because even though we drink from a cup it's not like it's all that much, it's mainly for practice, yk?

[mkksmom]

The ped actually had us cut back on protein to help with constipation, and it worked. I cut out meat and now I only give her some yogurt, a little cheese and once in a while, so me beans. I also don't do much rice. Prunes and pears work well for my LO. I do give her watered down pear juice when she's really constipated. I figure it's better than medicine. I have an older dd, and it was no big deal at all when I decided to take her from 50% juice to 25% juice, and now she just prefers water.

[akat]

I don't know if this will help, but just thought I'd mention it - my 6 month old loves to slurp ice cubes in a mesh feeder.

[Angelorum]

Would she eat "snow" from a snow cone maker? We used to have a little hand crank one when I was a kid...