My 2.6 year old DS goes 7 hours without a drink.

[nappyaddict]

Is this OK? I offer one to him every so often but he just refuses it.

as long as he is passing urine okay and it's fairly clear (as opposed to dark orange sludge ) then that's okay i reckon - there is enormous variety in how much liquid little ones put away. as long as he gets plenty of foods with reasonably high water content then he will be fine i am sure.

agree with katie re the wee thing. Will he have it out of a beaker with a straw maybe.

What does he usually drink?

My ds is the same. I figure he'll drink when he needs to. Does he have milk at night?

I have found that not drinking enough causes my DS to have fairly severe constipation, so you should keep an eye out for that too.

katiek - he doesn't really eat either so i doubt he's getting much water from his food. Today all he's eaten is his dinner. He generally eats 1 good meal a day (usually breakfast or dinner)

He usually drinks water or fresh juice mixed with water. He usually drinks it out of a bottle or cup with straw.

He sometimes has milk but not always.

Is he constipated nappyaddict? My DS hardly eats when he is constipated and normally just eats his tea.

is he breastfeeding?
My 3 year old always says no to drink,except juice, but will often drink if it is just put in front of him. Out of glass or proper mug is often more popular than sippy cup etc. Mine will go for hours too - as will I.

My 3yo DS is a bit like this too - he does sometimes really want a drink, but goes for ages not wanting one. If I'm worried he's not getting enough liquid I give him pink milk (you can buy strawberry milk in the milk section or you can get mix-in powder). He loves that so always necks the lot

We just leave drinks around - DD has always had a water bottle upstairs and one downstairs that I wash and refill whenever I stand on one!

At home I leave one on his little table in his playroom but he hardly touches it even if i give it to him and say do you want a drink. if we are out and about I can't do that so keep asking if he wants a drink and he just says no.

And no he's not breastfed anymore.

We have the same problem, and I worry my 4-year old will get poorly from not drinking enough. However, I heard an interested item on the radio the other day saying that the ability of the body to conserve water varies enormously from person to person. Some people sweat much more than others and will need to drink much more, and others are so efficient at conserving body water that they need to drink much less. Actually it was a sport related item and was talking about how it is wrong of drinks manufacturers to claim we need so much fluid per day/per exercise session as we are all different. One thing that helped for a while with my boy was letting him drink from a straw, but this was not always appropriate as he tends to make a real mess and get giddy with straws. Also is your kid stubborn. Mine is very, and the more we suggest things to him (eg have a drink) the more he will resist. Perhaps it's best to leave it to him to ask when he's thirsty - as others have said, he won't deliberately thirst to death.

DD was like this too; she was just too busy to remember. When she got to about 3 I had a chat with her about dehydration making you ill, and after that she would take a drink when reminded, and eventually would remember to have a drink regularly, by herself.

that's very interesting yak - and confirms my general impression that a lot of needless anxiety is generated in us mums by the whole drinking thing. remember those recent studies showing that we certainly don't all need to be constantly necking water every hour on the hour in an effort to keep on top of our supposed 2.5 litre a day 'need' - we need nothing like this much in fact, especially if we are taking in food with reasonable water content. some kids really are pretty thirstless - my DD is like this - she must drink about an eighth of what my DS gets through every day!