GP told DD (9) that she needs to drink more lemonade

[stripeyknickersspottysocks]

Took DD back to the GP with another UTI. Asked for a paed referral for an ultrasound as well as the usual antibiotics. GP agreed to this.

She then asked DD if she drank enough. DD does have to be nagged to drink and I said that especially at school I don't think she drinks a lot as her water bottle comes back full most days.

GP asked if she would drink juice instead and I said no, I offer her juice and she doesn't want it. Never bothers with it at home. I laughed and said the only thing she likes is lemonade but she can't be drinking that all day. GP said it would be fine to drink it all day as long as it was the sugar free version. I was sat there saying actually no, what about all the aspartame. GP said it was fine and we should let DD drink lemonade.

SO of course she is now demanding lemonade and saying "but the Dr said I HAD to drink it". More than one cup in 24 hourse would send her hyper. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Your DD has recurrent UTIs painful and annoying.

She will not willing drink anything but lemonade and the fact that she isn't drinking enough is making the UTI situation worse

If drinking lemonade means that she will drink enough then let her drink lemonade.

Check out Sainsbury's lemonade - I think they have a policy of avoiding aspartame in their sugar-free drinks.

But I agree with Pixie - it's more important that she drinks than you worry about either sugar or sweeteners. If it's sugar, then you can always insist that she brushes her teeth after drinking it.

i would rather give her full-fat than sugar free and make sure you brush teeth well

how about fizzy water as an alternative? mixed with juice or squash?

Can you say she can drink lemonade as long as she mixes it with fruit juice

cranberry juice as a mixer would help down there too

It is very important that she drinks. It almost doesn't matter what she drinks, as long as fluid is passing through her. Would she be willing to compromise, and for every glass of, say, water or whatever you find acceptable, she gets a glass of lemonade?

Does it have to be Sprite-type lemonade, or would she drink one of the real lemons types?

Would she drink cordial with sparkling water?

There are other sources of fluids, too: ice-lollies and jelly are particularly good, and you can make your own at home with juices or cordials.

don't brush stragiht after drinking it. becausae it's acidic and you'll be brushing that all over your teeth

get her to eat some cheese or milk or something to neutralise it

What about tea? Typhoo do really nice decaff bags.

She won't drink tea or sparkling water/cordial. She'll only drink Sprite type stuff.

She has a glass of water or blackcurrent juice at breakfast. She takes water to school but only has a few mouthfuls. Has water or juice at tea. Then Nesquik or hot chocolate at bedtime.

Apart from not really drinking much at school I thought it was ok. I do offer her blackcurrent juice to take to school but she says no.

She now says that she's only going to drink lemonade, inc at breakfast, tea and bedtime. So I think its worse that it was before.

that is annoying, esp if she did drink other stuff, just not much of it

I would be putting my foot down though I think, and saying ONE glass of lemonade a day, which is AFTER school, if she has drunk plenty of her water

how old is she? old enough to know that if she doen't drink properly she'll get ill?

i was ike that as a child tho tbh, hospitalise with dehydration too as I didn't drink enough

Correct me if I'm wrong but some sugary lemonades have the correct electrolyte balance for dehydration. I have known paed doctors recommend flat 7UP for dehydrated children.

But being hydrated is, at this point, more important.

If you're happy for her to have Nesquik or hot chocolate, what's the issue with lemonade?

Sainsbury's own-brand sugar free lemonade doesn't have aspartame in it; IIRC they use sucralose which is generally considered to be harmless.

She really does need to drink more if she's getting recurrent UTIs. Even if she were drinking the aspartame-laden stuff it's the lesser of two evils, but there will be a non-aspartame alternative.

I don't mind her having one glass of lemonade a day, the same way as I don't mind her having one class of Nesquik a day. I just don't want her to be drinking loads of lemonade, don't think its a good habit to get into.

Guess I'll have to check the Sainsbury's own brand out. Just hope I manage to get some water or juice down her tommorrow.

Well. I would be annoyed too, but the GP has given you quite a strong message. Whether I went for the sugary or sugar-free version (I'd prefer the sugary version too) I would insist that she has water after the lemonade, even if just a mouthful, to clean it off her teeth. And believe me I can be pretty tough where teeth are concerned. If she won't drink the mouthful of water after the glass, I would dilute the lemonade (which would be DISGUSTING I think, though I suppose she might learn to like it which wouldn't be terrible). I would also lock up the bloody stuff, basically treating it as medicine.

fwiw Sprite doesn't hgave aspartame in it (the full fat one i mean).

fluids definitely important, but as others have said, there are other ways too.

jelly?
yoghurt?
does she eat fruit? eg watermelon, strawberries, oranges/satsumas, pears - all counts.

ice lollies.

if she was drinking nesquik type stuff, would she drink a homemade milkshake? bit of icecream (alos ocunts actually), bit of milk, favourite fruit?

smoothies?

I know how much of anightmare this is - my dd1 is a fluid refuser (ASD). she has stopped drinking entirely twice now - once at 12 months old, when she stopped for 4 weeks, and then again at 2.6 when she stopped for 9 months it took us a long time ot get her drinking again - she would then only drink one type of fruit juice.

wet foods (spag bol, curry, soup) all count as well.

Would she be dehydrated if she's only having 3 or 4 drinks a day?

To be honest I'm not a big drinker - I have a cup of tea at breakfast, a glass of water at lunch and another drink in the evening. Nothing else.

has she ever been constipated? usually the body compensates for low fluids by extracting more water from stools, leding ot constipation.

however, if there are other bowel issues (slight food intolerances, lots of sugar canalso lead ot slightly loose stools) then the lack of constipation can be misleading

No, never been constipated.

how often does she have a wee?

she might be holding on too long, and causing issues that way, rather than a lack of fluid

how about stuff like cucumber? any good?

Full fat Tesco lemonade only has water, lemon and sugar in it. Lesser of two evils IMO.

She does eat a lot of cucumber, loves the stuff and has lots of cucumber and pepper in her pack up evry day.

She wees about 4x a day, when she gets up, lunch time, when she gets home from school and bedtime.