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How do I get a reluctant toddler to drink?

2 replies

Spikeinhiscoat · 04/04/2013 15:55

Ds2 is 16 months, and in the last week or two has been drinking very little. Normally, he'll have about 100 ml (cows) milk with breakfast, water during the morning and with lunch, 150 ml milk in the afternoon, more water and with dinner, and 100 ml milk at bedtime. Now, that's gone down to maybe 50 ml milk at breakfast, 100 ml in the evening, and very little (maybe 50 ml altogether) water throughout the day. He's eating ok, doesn't have very wet nappies, but still pooing as normal. I've tried different tricks, like different cups/beakers, heating his milk, even tried going back to formula, or very dilute juice, but these all these just seem to work once, then back to not drinking. The only thing that send to work is other people's cups - if he sees another child drinking, he'll be right there trying to take the cup away from them. If I then buy him an identical cup, he isn't interested.
He has a lot of milk in with his breakfast cereal (& yoghurt, so I'm not worried about calcium intake), but there's no way that's enough for the day. What else can I do?

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tasmaniandevilchaser · 04/04/2013 16:00

hello, I don't really have any good advice, I'm afraid. My DD went through a phase of this, she kept complaining of pain when she went to the loo. The GP said, they'll just drink if they're thirsty, don't worry about it! Well.....she's complaining of pain on urinating, it's been 3 times in 3 weeks...she's obviously NOT drinking enough. Sigh. She did have some UTIs, sorry don't want to panic you! She does drink more now, though I don't think it's very much and her wee often smells very...ahem..."strong".

Sometimes I tried to encourage her by making it a competition (but she was a bit older than your DS) but the GP said to just leave it as they would drink when they were thirsty. Sorry not to be of more help! Maybe someone will be along with better advice.

Spikeinhiscoat · 04/04/2013 16:11

Thanks, it's good to know it's not just me. Ds1 never drank water when he was the same age, but he drank his milk, and when I realised that he would drink dilute squash, it helped. Ds2 won't do that, and it's flummoxed me.

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