Water/ Juice for 11 month old???

[tummytickler]

Hi all
I have a question about giving an 11 month old water or juice.
I dont give my son anything but breast milk at the moment. I offer him a cup of water at meal times but henever wants it.

Should he be having any other liquid, other than breastmilk?

i aam doing a PGCE in September and will have to leave him at nursery , but i intend to continue breastfeeding when he is with me for as long as he wants. However - what if he wont take any other liquid all day.

I left him with my mother overnight and 1/2 day so my dh and i could get some housy stuff done and my mum said he drunk nothing at al out of bottle or cup - which isnt great, although he wasnt in distress andnot too worried about a oneoff, but ifthat happens everyday at nursery that is no good.

Ontop of this most people thinki ought to have given up bfing by now so this is of course their solution, but not a route i want to go down (I would rather not do my PGCE!)

So what do i do - i thought i was doing the right thing by only offering breast milk - was i wrong? It feels right to us but have i done it wrong?

Sorry, a bit ranty and moany!

breast feeding is your decision and as long as you and your child are happy it's nobody elses business everyone has an opinion for or against but ultimately it's your choice

if you can get him to take water great if not a little very diluted squash is fine try a cup that water etc just comes out of often sold as age 4mth+ it maybe your ds does not like different sucking action involved with bottles variflow teats are often best as they mimick breast feeding closest remember this is all new for you and your ds so will take practise and lots of trial and error

Ps good luck with PGCE

Have you ever heard the saying 'you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'?
It's EXACTLY the same with babies! Well done you for bf til now - wish I could have, but my twins VERY greedy & my older two wouldn't give me a moments peace, bless!
Your baby will take what it needs - when it needs it. Don't worry too much about it. Obviously if babe shows signs of dehydration, then call the hv but in the main, baby is the one who will decide when & if he wants extra fluids x

DS is 11m and still BFs loads when I'm around. Fortunately he's always been quite good about using a cup (I went back to work at 6.5m and expressed but he didn't take a bottle so it was cup or nothing). I tend to offer water as and when or very dilute fresh orange or apple juice with meals. I'm convinced he drinks because holding and drinking from the cup is fun and something he can do independently.

I would just make sure the cup is always available and be cool about it. Soon the novelty of being able to help himself will kick in, and in the meantime you could offer him sips from a plastic tumbler or something.

Plus, September's still a good way off.

Good luck

My ds (even though at nursery 3 days a week from 6 months) would drink very little water until he was 12/13 months.

When with me he'd MUCH rather have boob, at nursery he'd have expressed milk, and maybe a few sips. I was very reluctant to give him juice, so perservered with the water, and sometimes he'd drink (a few sips) from a bottle (I mean an ordinary water bottle, not a baby bottle) of not a cup. The weather got warm round about his first birthday, and suddenly, wham, he'd drink a cupful at a time.

as long as he wee'd, and it wasn't smelly, and I bf'd on demand when I was around, I reckoned eventually he'd drink water. And he did. I think he just wasn't thirsty before

Hope that story is of use

I wouldn't give juice, tbh. Water and milk is fine.

Thanks everybody - maybe i will just carry on as i am, and wait. It is good to hear that other little ones did the same.
I too was reluctant to give juice and have only offered it twice - to be honest it was more because he doesnt like any fruit at all (although likes all veg) so i thught i bit of apple juice or orange juice might be a way to get some fruit into him - but he hated it anyway!
I will try a few different cup over the summer and see what happens. I dont want him to go to nursery anyway .
I am definately not giving up on the bfing though!
Thanks everyone

Have you tried a straw - its weird but loads of people find that because its fun their LOs will drink from those. Also, at nursery because everyone else is drinking from their cup, he'll almost undoubtedly do it too. DS never liked spouted cups at home (only an open cup or straw cup will do), but uses one happily at nursery.

I fed till DS was 23 months, and he'd started ft nursery at 4.5 months, so its really not a problem