My Breastfed baby wont drink water - any suggestions??

[littlepheebs]

Hello all

My five month old daughter has been exclusivley breast fed until about two weeks ago, she has been constipated ever since weaning and I am getting worried. I have been giving her the usual stuff - sweet potato, carrots etc, which she loves

All the advice I have been getting is to give her more water, but she just won't drink it at all. She will take a bottle but as soon as she realises it is water not milk she just spits it out, same from a first cup I bought. I have even tried syrining it into her mouth but she spits it out.

If anyone has similar experiences or any tips I would be made up!

Try cutting back or stopping the solid foods - it might be she is not ready for them yet if they are making her constipated.

Try expressing some foremilk and adding it to the food.

I found this helps : feeding at nappy changes and bath time, lil ten minute quick feeds here and there to up the foremilk intake.

How much solids does she eat per day? You could try cutting out the sweet potato and instead give her a different veg like brocoli which has lots of water in it.

If all else fails the way in which mm SIL (childrens nurse) told me to do it, was add a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar to 3 oz of water and this also worked well for dd. Prune juice is another. you can get baby prune juice so its better for her.

At the moment she doesnt need the extra calories if your still BFing her - what you give her is an extra. So dont cut out BFing feeds and supplement with food, make the food an extra in her diet. and maybe just stick to one veg/fruit per every 3 days to see how her digestive system handles it.

didnt explain the whole sugar thing - lactulose is just that - sugar and water.

I think I'd ease off on the solids tbh. Just to see whether it makes a difference in terms of constipation, since at that age (and taking into account the low calorific content of the solids you'll be giving her i.e. veg/fruit purees/rice) the vast majority of her nutrition comes from milk anyway..

Thanks Mums, I think I am just going to B feed her over the weekend and see how she goes... fingers crossed...

Try feeding her water on a spoon - had a friend with a similar issue where baby would only take water from a spoon!

No need to give water. I'd just stop the solids for a while.

I weaned my monster of a boy who was on the 98th centile slightly early but he only had literally a few spoonfuls a day at 5 months. The rest was breastmilk.

I definitely agree with cutting back solids. To begin with you're not meant to cut back on breastmilk anyway.

Have you had a read of kellymom? It's a fab website and lots of people on mumsnet rave about it...

Hope the weekend goes well on breastmilk alone x

DD is now doing fine, took her off solids for a few dyas and started again slowly. She is now six months and eating three smaal meanls of ruit or veg a day. I bought a Doidy cup to try to get her to drink some water and that seems to have done the trick! She loves it! xx