Any ideas to get DS to drink more ...

[Millie1]

DS1 is a terrible drinker - we're trying to potty train at present and really need to get liquids into him. It's hard going to get him to drink 2 x 300ml cups of water a day - and Dr has said he should be having 3-4 of them cos of consitipation issues. Any ideas? Have tried bribes ... one smartie for every cup finished. Doesn't work. He's 3.5 BTW. Thanks!

i dont know if this will help but i find that the more my son eats the less he seems to drink.
i dont know you so do not know if this applys to your son

How about making him some lollies? Does he like jelly?

My dd loves to have whatever I do, so if I swig on a bottle of water, she demands it!
Try that one out-even make a big show of 'fighting' over it with someone else so his curiosity is aroused.

My daughter also wants to drink from a bottle of water when she sees me doing it. Other than that how about trying watermelon in addition to everything else suggested here?

Character drinking bottles - Bob the Builder, Incredibles, Thomas? Woolies do a good range.

Straws? That works for us when having to drink medicine thinly disguised in chocolate milk. Making juice/water ice lollies also. I also let DS1 (3.10) drink "champagne" from a plastic picnic champagne glass. It's apple juice and water and he has his own special glass (the odd one bought to replace a broken one!).
My mum used to put a plastic jug on the kitchen windowsill with a black mark on it, to show how much water my sister had to drink. Every time she drank a cup of water, Mum would put a cup of water in the jug. There must have been some reward at the end of the day for filling the jug.
Hope this helps.

agree with the others, exciting new water bottle, straws, or even just the novelty of a plain water bottle we have. My ds also loves juice boxes (make sure they're not "juice drink") with a straw. Also in the evening he drink his dinner water out of a tall plastic glass with his choice of colour of ordinary straw for the evening. My ds is only 21mo though so this sort of thing still pleases! I think ice lollies are a great idea.

Just about to post this and dh has just emailed me that he's bought ds an Incredibles sport bottle from tescos! Can't wait to see his face later! Good luck.

I've just come on to this as my Dd (2.5) doesn't drink much either. Gonna try the suggestions and see if any help.

I was wondering Millie though if you'd tried a sticker chart? I've heard from other mums this works wonders for kids around your Ds1's age.

DS is 3.5 and he did not drink much water, until I started drinking sparkling water (am pregnant and is one of the few drinks I can currently stomach). Now he demands it!!!

Do you think he might prefer to drink that? Obviously, not too gassy or too many glasses otherwise he just be belching all day

I had this problem with my autistic son for awhile. I found it worse if we went out anywhere as he'd just be too busy to drink. Runny food helped like soup, yoghurts, cereal with milk etc. Also I found he was more likely to drink if he could see what he was given so an open cup was better or even a glass although I had to watch over him obviously with this. I used heavy based ones so he couldn't knock them over. I tried straws too. Also was amazed that he drank plain water recently whilst out because they put it in a big jug with lots of ice in it. He tends to drink only blackcurrent juice or milk at home but I dilute the juice about a million times.

Fruit like melon also has a high water content.

Good luck with the potty training.

Wow ... loads of brilliant ideas - thank you all! Some I've already tried (ie. we have a cupboard full of different cups - they're popular for a day but then the thrill wears off) and others I'm definitely going to give a go. I like the jug idea - I really want him to be aware of drinking water rather than getting it in by stealth, IYKWIM. Thanks!!

hi,my dd is 26months but has a development delay and she only drinks about 200ml of juice a day!!
You have all had some great tips ,but i dont think any of them are going to help my dd as her understanding isnt very good.She suffers with going to the loo,have tried different flavours,cups and runny food but still no joy, she also hardly eats a great deal either so i am at my wits end.
Docters just say give more fruit(she hates it)so please keep the tips coming!!
Nice to know my dd isn`t the only one.

Things that have worked for me:

Fizzy water.

Herbal tea - either cool as an ordinary drink, or warm and poured out of a teapot to have a tea-party with Mummy.

Jelly (especially home-made, and definitely not the no-added sugar supermarket ones).

Crazy straws.

Always offering drink before snack, especially if snack is something particularly tempting like a biscuit, and letting them know that snack comes after a drink.

Having a full beaker freeely available to them all the time, whereever they are.

ice pops / jelly / fruit

change what he drinks out of .. sports bottle

give him fizzy water

doesn't have to be actual liquid, just high liquid content

oops sorry old thread

We had (and still have) similar challenge with my DS, who's 3. We have always used stealth/encouragement approach rather than star charts/awareness approach, because of his personality more than any philosophical reasons!

Stuff that has worked for us:

• making sure a beaker/sippy cup of drink is near him all the time, and actively reminding him to drink (not constantly, but if we know he's not had enough recently).

• giving him what he likes, and a variety of drinks - strawberry milk was a major discovery for us...maybe just try some different juices?

• making sure he finishes up the drink in his cup at the end of a meal, before any treat or dessert.

• not forcing the issue, if you make it too much of a big deal it just becomes something for them to resist. seems like softly softly approach has worked a lot better for us.

hope this helps.

When we were encouraging dd to drink through a straw (speech & lang) we tried a water fountain. We got them in Toys'r'us, sainsbury...about £5 but really did the trick. I'll try to find a link for you.

Here they are

As they drink through the straw, water sprays up into the top dome. We had to go out and buy another one for our older ds, who wanted one too. They used to drink it so quickly, and I often had to refil several times.