Weaning - dropping milk but refusing water

[Willow4987]

My almost 8month old is taking to weaning really well but is absolutely refusing water out of any bottle/beaker/cup I offer it to him in. He won’t even take a sip

Coupled with this he is dropping his milk intake. He’s still having roughly 20-25oz a day but I’m concerned that he will keep dropping milk and refuse water and become dehydrated. I also don’t want him to go below the 20oz minimum but it’s like he knows food is coming so is using the milk as a water replacement almost 🤷🏻‍♀️

Is there anything I can do? Is this normal?

At the moment his routine is roughly

7-8am - breakfast and milk

11-12/1 - lunch and milk

3-4 - snack and milk

7 - milk

And then night feeds if he wants them which isn’t often

It took a while for my LO to start liking water and now he loves it. I used to give water rich food like melon and cucumber but unless you're somewhere hot right now I wouldn't worry.

Dd was like this but would drink water out of her tea set in the bath.

He probably won't start properly on the water until he drops the milk. He's still having a lot of liquid with the milk so I wouldn't worry.

Give him watermelon/cucumber etc. as pp said. Lots of 'watery' foods.

Offer water with every meal and occasionally in between but don't force the issue or stress out about it.

I would offer water only from a cup/beaker to save the hassle of him accepting from a bottle and then having to wean off the bottle. Get an easy to drink from cup and stick with that.

When he's ready he'll drink it.