Tips for keeping baby hydrated - please help

[WhatAPickle11]

11 month dd has hand, foot and mouth. We've just been to the gp who said she wasn't dehydrated at the moment but told us the signs to look out for. She said to keep up fluids. We're really trying everything we can but dd is in so much pain in her mouth/throat, she just keeps pushing bottles of milk and water, pouches and ice lollies away. We're also giving her ibroprofen when we can but it's not doing much. Any tips please? It's so stressful since her in pain and not taking fluid.

Regular syringes of water or fluid. You can use the calpol syringe. Set a timer and give a syringe every 5 mins 5ml x 20 = 100ml an hour. Quite labour intensive but does work.

I second the syringe method and you might find she’s willing to drink something (milk is good) once some water’s gone in.

Also ice cream!

You could also try a bowl of icecream.

Cross post :)

Ice cream contains salt so not good for rehydration purposes.

Syringes of water is best. My son was terrible at drinking at this age.

So sorry you're having a stressful time

Salts are actually good for hydration?

Watermelon is our go to to get fluid into him when poorly

Watermelon is always a hit in our house. Other watery fruit would be good too. And maybe get some yummy juice to tempt her too.

That's what I was going to say! As in rehydration salts

The syringe method works brilliantly - Google 'oral fluid challenge' for amounts/timings. It's what they get you to do in hospital anyway if they suspect dehydration (although in hospital you have to do it with dioralyte). If LO vomits and can't keep fluids down, its a sign you need urgent medical advice.

Thank you so much for everyone's tips. After seeing this, I went to Morrisons, stocked up on anything and everything liquidy that might tempt her. She did well this evening with taking milk, half a pouch and a little bit of watermelon. Only problem was, she gagged on a bit of watermelon and was then sick everywhere! 🙈 Even so, she drank more milk after that so maybe we're slowly getting there.