Baby won’t drink water but is constipated

[crocs123]

Any tips on how I can get my almost 8 month old baby to drink more water? For the past two weeks he has been doing dark green hard poos. He strains and makes a grunting noise when he goes (which he didn’t used to do) but otherwise he doesn’t seem in discomfort. The gp said his stomach is soft so he is emptying his bowels, he just needs to drink more water.

I think he has a good amount of fibre, weetabix for breakfast most mornings and some fruits and veg during the day. Health visitor says he needs to drink more water now he is weaning, but how can I get him to do this? I’ve been offering him water from a beaker with each meal and he happily takes it (but I think most ends up down him), but then reaches a point where he just doesn’t want anymore. But the amount he is drinking isn’t enough to help with his poo.

i’m not really sure what to do?

Will he eat melon? That’s watery.

Is he still having plenty of milk too? Prunes are supposed to help. You could mix a puree of them in with food.

Warm/tepid boiled water, esp last thing at night before bed.
Old fashioned remedy that works for some.

Thanks for the ideas! Will try and get some prunes and melon. I’ve been giving him cold tap water so I’ll try some warm boiled water and see if he takes that better.

he isn’t having as much milk as usual because he has been super fussy with feeding for the last few days. When I put him in my arms to feed him, he tries to wriggle away as soon as he sees the bottle or once he’s had a bit of the bottle. He won’t just sit still and drink like he used to!

Have you tried a straw cup? If you can teach him how to use it you can leave it around when he’s playing as well as at meal times. We had similar problems and this worked for us but took a while before she wasn’t constipated. I also mixed prune or pear purée with her yoghurt once a day.

Very dilute squash/juice? Not ideal, but he does need fluid.

Am having exactly the same issue as you, except that DD really cries when doing a poo 😔 Not interested in anything but milk and doesn't eat all that much either (but loves fruit and Ella's Kitchen pouches...)

Prune pouches. They were like rocket fuel for my DC!

Things with fibre like prunes and weetabix help bulk out the stools by absorbing water from the system. So, the more you add to the diet, the more fluid is needed. My daughter had constipation for a few months around weaning. It is common. We found offering luke warm water, often, in very small amounts helped a lot. She did not like it cold.

Pears are very good - babies tend to be be receptive to earing them than prunes.

Pear juice is excellent - but not the clear stuff (think it's Heinz that market this clearstuff for babies).. Just llquidise pears with water - strain if too pulpy for him.

Normal orange juice from a carton works well. Prune pouches or any of the fruit pouches are fairly liquid. Ice lollies. Now I made my own with dc one but when dc 2 was at this stage she could see dc one eating shop bought lollies so she just got one of those.
The fruit and custard or just fruit pots for babies are fairly liquid, yogurts are a wet food.

Try a sippy cup, more will get into his mouth than down his front

Reduce the amount of weetabix and give some stewed fruit like apples, pears, prunes, berries etc. Try giving him porridge instead of weetabix a couple of days, with some banana or berries in it.
Weetabix sets like concrete if you don't have loads of fluids.