Has anyone made their own flavoured water?

[Stickortwigs]

One of my children will not drink plain water, if that’s all I put in her school bottle it comes home untouched.

On balance I’d rather know she was drinking something so it’s not the hill I’ve chosen to die on.

I’ve been buying flavoured water which she’ll finish, but the plastic really bothers me. Has anyone used and drops or similar to make flavoured water without all the packaging.

(The bottles with the fresh fruit container things won’t work. I don’t think it would taste strong enough and I don’t want to be constantly checking I’ve got the right fresh fruit each day).

She will drink plain water if she’s not offered alternatives.

The OP has specifically said that's not the case and it comes home untouched.

Is a few drops of cordial not the obvious solution here?

Why not squash?

Agree with the above. Plain water or nothing. It’s a shame you started it in the first place really. Push it as the ‘big girl’ choice perhaps.

Has she tried air up bottle?

You need to explain to DD (and maybe even research yourself) the damage drinking flavoured water/cordial throughout the day will do to her teeth. Kids don’t just hate water. It’s a learned behaviour to always being given an alternative. My kids are given soft drinks but as a treat. It’s never an alternative to drinking water for health.

You say her water goes untouched from school then you need to be talking to school on ways they can help encourage her; the school letting her go all day without a drink it’s the schools problem. Not your daughters.

I second air up bottles. They drink water but there's a scented pod that tricks you into thinking it's flavoured.

I make my own with a fruit teabag. Cold brew fruit tea is a thing. Bit acidic on the teeth if you drink loads but for one bottle a day I’m sure it’s ok

If she’s thirsty she will. They like those flavoured drinks because they are sweet. I say wean her off then. They do like ice in drinks.

Thanks for the advice but this is why I added the context in the OP. She simply won’t drink the water, she won’t complain or cause a fuss she’ll ‘drink’ when she feels thirsty but it will be a miniscule sip. She also never feels hungry and is a fussy eater. I’m putting my efforts into getting a varied and nutritious meal into her three times a day and so flavoured water is a compromise I’m willing to make.

I didn’t realise this. I thought they were those gimmicky ones that you put fruit into. I’ll look into it.

That’s like saying a child with ARFID will eat when they’re hungry
they would rather starve themselves

Definitely look at air up. Different flavour pods mix it up a bit
You can now buy it in Sainsbury’s

Look for waterdrop capsules.

Water with some sliced cucumbers in it is surprisingly good.

Thank you. I’ll take a look.

Thank you. Yes, I’ve ran this experiment for two years (!) and have decided her being hydrated is more important.

I like to freeze fruit and fresh herbs in water. Lemon, lime, strawberries, raspberries, melon, mint and rosemary work well (not all together but one or two!). As the water thaws it's nice and cold to drink and has a bit of a flavour.

Don't you think I the school have enough on? This is the parent's responsibility.

Cucumber is stronger flavoured than it looks and pretty refreshing, maybe she could try it at home first? Maybe mint. Id try and get her away from super sweet flavours with a bit of novelty

Yeah, there’s no way I’m going to ask a teacher to encourage her to drink.

My non water drinking ds liked the air up bottle but if you can, I'd suggest she finds a friends to try before you spend money. Apparently some people's brains don't marry up the scent and taste as effectively as others (if that makes sense) and it's "missing" the after taste of actual flavour. Hope it works for her, like I said it did for my DS.

Then that’s on you. Teachers have a duty of care to your child.. I know this because I work in a school and have kids in my group that also aren’t water-drinkers. But we don’t allow juice/squash because it’s just so bad for their teeth.

You would be so so shocked by the statistics of oral hygiene and cavities in children over the years. (I used to be a dental assistant for 5 years too)

You don’t realise just how bad it is and if you did you’d make more of an effort to reverse the habit you’ve instilled in them.

ps. It’s nothing like AFRID, that’s an actual sensory issue for people with complex needs. Water and flavoured water is nothing like having that 😅

Do you know what 'duty of care' means? It doesn't mean an obligation to coax each child to learn to drink water or a drink that isn't squash. That is very, very much the parent's responsibility (if they don't want their kid to drink squash). Why are you telling the OP that's for teachers/ TAs to waste time on when they should be teaching? It absolutely isn't under the school's duty of care. If the child doesn't want to drink, what do you expect the staff to do and why? The OP is quite right.

I have a jug of water in the fridge with lemon/oranges/mint/cucumber/grapefruit whatever combination I have, then just fill their normal water bottles up from that. So the water is flavoured, but I'm not sending them off to school with random bits of fruit in their water bottles. A jug lasts about 3 days, it's not that much of a faff really.

This isn’t the exact model we have, but the same idea. I put a slice of lemon, couple of slices of cucumber and some mint leaves. It’s delicious and the kids definitely enjoy it more. I can really taste chlorine in tap water so it helps me drink more water too. Agree with others that air up bottles are pretty good. They are pretty expensive though so do make sure it’s labelled before it goes to school if you get one.