Can't get 6.5 month old to drink much water - any tips?

[veggie77]

Ok, so my 6.5 month old Son has been on solids for a good 7 or 8 weeks now. He eats 3 meals a day (baby porridge with fruit puree at brekkie, a savoury & fruit puree at lunch & same again at tea time.) I breastfeed him and got advised by the Health Visitor to breastfeed before the solid, so he takes what he needs from me in the way of milk, rather than filling up on food.

He's been constipated ever since he started solids, on & off. He basically spends a couple of days a week doing several rabbit pellet style poos, then doesn't go again for a few more days. I'm pretty sure this is because he doesn't drink enough water. I offer up water at every meal, take it with us when we go out and offer it up in between meals. I try to get drink down him before eating solids, after, during, you name it, i have tried! I've got doidy cups, 4 different makes of training beakers. All of which he will sip from ever so small amounts and then rams his lips shut. I thought he hadn't got the hang of the beaker / cup etc. But he does know how to drink from them, he just refuses. I've tried diluting apple juice, orange juice, and shop bought baby juice e.g HIPP blackcurrant one. It makes no odds, he still has pathetic small sips then stops. Also tried it warm not cold, but it doesn't make a difference. Occasionally I've syringed water into him via the calpol syringe and been quite successful, but don't want to do that at every feed as he won't learn to drink normally.

He's like this with my husband and my Mum, so its not just my techniques.

Having to give him pureed prunes twice a week to get his bowels to open up, then what comes forth is about 3 days worth of poo that he passes over the course of the day, so its not much fun changing about 6 pooey nappies on the big clear out days!

I'm a few days into starting him on formula as he seems to be losing interest in breastfeeding, so 2 of his 5 milk feeds are now formula (which he takes well) but the rest are breastmilk.

Does anyone have any tips or ideas for getting more water down him?

Only other thing i should add is that he generally only had one poo a week as an exclusively breastfed baby before i started solids. So its possibly his normal pattern. Its just worrying when the constipation causes him pain to pass a bowel movement. He cries out and is fretful.

Outside of mealtimes, if he is on my lap he also seems to grab my cup or glass and tries to drink from it, so obviously is thirsty sometimes. I let him drink from my glass and annoyingly he will take it, but only after he sees me drink from it first! Never in a highchair. Think it is a novelty for him and fun to take water from Mummy's big glass rather than his own things.

Grateful for any ideas! Thanks.

[spacegirl81]

Try a cup with a straw my boys never has bottles/cups from an early age. Both breasted so never had bottles for milk either. Straw makes sense as it's a similar sucking action.

If you go on Amazon and look up mommo cups.

[BananaPie]

He'll be getting a fair amount of fluids from bf, and from food, so try not to worry. Give him plenty of fruit with a high water content.

Dd literally didn't drink for about a month when she was weaning - she had a bf am and pm, but refused water in between (ate plenty of food though). I was worried, but it just clicked all of a sudden. No child is actually going to allow themselves to dehydrate!

[notanyanymore]

How about a sippy cup? Hold him while you go and get it from the cupboard, put a drink in it, pretend its for you, have a 'sip', then let him have a go?

[LifeOfPee]

I'd give more breastfeeds if I were you. Breastmilk has a laxative effect and will help him. 5 feeds isn't much in a day. Does he feed at night too? Formula milk is likely to exacerbate the constipation, not help it.

My DS is also 6.5 months. He has about 12 breastfeeds over the course of 24 hours and 3 meals. He also has about 3 poos a day

My DD would never drink any wate

[LifeOfPee]

oops, posted mid sentence.

...my DD would never drink any water and like you I bought every cup on the market tried every juice, fruit tea, warm water, cold water anything I could to try and make her take in some fluids but she never did really. She still doesn't now at 11 years old. She was never really constipated though.

I think I'd try and stick to water as a drink rather than the juices, if the sugar isn't tempting him to drink more then there's no need to subject his teeth to the potential damage.

[JimbosJetSet]

I would concentrate on breast milk and water from fruit, veg etc as his main intake of fluid at this age - my DCs didn't start using water beakers properly until 8/9 months at the earliest.

[redcaryellowcar]

I think formula can cause constipation so would try to bf as much as possible, I would avoid mushed banana as this slows things down, pear and apple puree might help things move along more quickly.
I would also, as above, persevere with just water, from any safe cup you can, but I remember feeling the same about ds when he was the same age, he just wasn't interested in drinking from sippy cup or anything else, he did get the hand if it around 9 months and now drinks water really well.

[EmmaLL25]

I spoon feed water before a feed to make sure my wee one is getting some water - he's also not great with a cup (although managed better today).

Also if he's had fruit purée as a meal I'll pop done water in empty dish and spoon food some of that water.

Not ideal long term but keeps things 'moving' in meantime.

[PurpleGirly]

Not the same time of year but I used to freeze water in those lolly moulds and he loved it.

[veggie77]

Ooh brilliant, thanks for all the tips and reassurance! Got lots of great ideas there :-)