What should I give my DD to drink???

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my 8.5 year old daughter has severe learning difficulties and a problem with her bowl making it very important to drink plenty.

She won't drink plain water. Believe me, we've gone all day without a drop of fluid, after following advice to not give her anything else. She might have a tiny sip but that's it. She's not a big drinker at all and it's really hard even with a drink she likes to get her to drink enough of it.

We are left with either sugary organic squash, which she likes, but isn't good on the teeth when she's just sipping it throughout the day. (Thinking of school bottle) Or there's sugar free with all the nasty artificial sweeteners. (Aaagh!!)

She does love milk, which is probably the drink she'll drink most of, that and cold tea (only with sugar)

Is there a way, I could keep her bottle cold enough to take milk to school?

Every time I go to buy drink for her for school, I just feel like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. There doesn't seem to be any choice I'm 100% happy with.

What would you do? I am desperate for her to drink enough, but don't want to rot her teeth, make her overweight or fill her full of chemicals.

Thank you.

Will she drink water flavoured with orange or lemon slices? You can get insulated bottles which might help keep the milk cool

we use no added sugar high juice which has some sweeteners but also a bit more juice. You could try flavoured waters too as some of them have sports caps so less spillage. I dont worry too much about sweeteners especially as ds has bad enamel and I try to limit sugary drinks

She will drink orange or apple juice with a splash of water, but not the other way around.

Our daughter was born with a condition where the enamel on her teeth isn't formed that well, so she has medium risk of tooth decay. Just to make things even more awkward!

I do wish I hadn't introduced squash at all and just offered milk or water from a baby, but you live and learn. I wasn't on MN back then.

She has a stainless steel bottle with her name on it at the moment, so maybe I could get it an insulating jacket or perhaps those fake plastic ice cubes that you put in the freezer? That might work.

She's gone off with milk today with a freezer pole thing in it. She didn't drink any of her squash yesterday, so I've said if she doesn't drink enough of the milk today, then the next day she'll be given water. (Evil mummy)

Hehe! Good luck!

It worked! She drank all the milk! She never drinks ALL of it. Result! It's milk again tomorrow then.

I have the same problem , dd won't drink water would rather be dehydrated won't drink milk or tea, will drink juice (apple/ orange/ tropical fruits etc) and orange or blackcurrant squash.

I worry about her teeth (which touch wood have been ok so far) and also the sweeteners. She also had a uti this year which was linked to blackcurrant squash and too much juice upsets her stomach - its a flipping nightmare!!!

Yes it is! I didn't know that about blackcurrant! Wow. My DD is now taking milk to school, threatened with water the next day if she doesn't drink enough. So far so good.

My dd has same problem with teeth and it is so tricky. Sometimes buy the little cartons of milk/ flavoured soya milk and they are drunk ok but water on own is an ongoing battle also sometimes get innocent smoothies hoping they arn't too much worse than fruit itself but probably not!