Help! Baby won't drink anything whilst on holiday

[LaLou7]

We're currently on holiday and our almost 10 month old won't drink much of anything really. She's breastfed and every time I put her near my boob she screams and pulls away. She had one feed before bed last night for about 3 minutes and that was it since the evening before. She's barely drinking water either whether we feed from a bottle, cup or whatever. I think she's teething as she doesn't have any teeth yet but aside from not drinking she is absolutely fine in herself and eating all solids perfectly - I'm just really worried about her getting dehydrated, especially with the hot weather. She will eat ice lollies but I know they're full of sugar so not sure how much I should be relying on those. Any advice would be most welcome as we're finding it quite difficult without our usual resources at home to rely on. Thanks!

I'd go with ice lollies if she is taking them.

Have you tried a straw - my toddlers loved drinking through straws!

Sounds like a nursing strike. Have a look on the kellymom website which offers good ideas for how to cope with this kind of thing. I always found nursing when my dc were dropping off to sleep or had just woke up really helped when they were super fussy. You could also do some skin to skin, have a bath together - make the breast available but no pressure, don't try to get her to latch, just let her have access if she wants it. If you're worried about water, have you tried using a calpol syringe and getting water in that way? I've done that a few times when mine had heavy colds and wouldn't take liquids.

Weak juice in whatever she'll drink it from.

Definitely go with the ice lollies if she will have them. I wouldn’t worry about the sugar for now. If the weather is really hot the sugar will actually be good.

Use lots of watery fruit? Cucumber, watermelon etc etc. Hope you get on ok

Oh wow we're having this problem today too with our similar aged little one. We have 3 different cups filled with water at any time and keep them near for her to access and keep encouraging but she's not interested at all. Had a big sloppy poo this morning so imagine there was a lot of water there.

Going to try the open cup and straw trick, get some ice lollies and try cups of milk too.

Very worrying isn't it! She was dry overnight!

Thank you! We've tried the straw but she doesn't seem to know how to suck from it, just chews the end of it.

We've managed to get her to have a few sips of weak diluted juice so will have to continue with that and the ice lollies. She's also having the Ellas kitchen fruit pouches which I've tried watering down to get some more fluid in her, but oh my it's stressful.

Hopefully we have a better day tomorrow 🤞🏽 thanks for your input x

Keep persevering! I bet with all those options she is taking more than you think.

I just remembered with the straw thing we only used short ones (Or cut one down) so they don't need to suck much to get a flow - their faces are a picture when they manage it! Try modelling sucking too.

And one more thing I remember - mine would drink loads in the bath as part of play. So try a cool bath (or sit in sink) with lots of receptacles to fill!