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My toddler refuses to drink

3 replies

SilentRefluxAdvicePlease · 24/11/2025 09:18

My toddler is 2 years 6 months. It has been a battle to get her to drink fluids for as long as I can remember. She was a bottle refuser as a baby and took a while to master the cup. She now uses a mixture of open and straw cups confidently. We had an appointment with a dietician recently who advised she should be aiming for one litre of fluids a day. This feels impossible at the moment! We are lucky if she will have 400ml (I know this because it’s what her water bottle can hold, which she doesn’t often finish in a day, although she has small amounts of dilute fruit juice in addition and milk on her cereal at breakfast). We are now finding that it is impacting toilet training because she can hold her wee for long periods. Any encouragement to drink just turns into a battle of wills and she is extremely strong willed! We have tried using different bottles/cups, giving her ‘challenges’ and offering dilute juice more often. Does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions that worked for them? Thanks so much.

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
thegirlwithapearl · 24/11/2025 09:25

If she'll drink juice or squash I'd just give her that throughout the day until she's used to drinking more.

Apologies I read that you do that anyway. I think if she's having some just leave her cup out where she can see it. Maybe put fresh juice out when she has a snack but just don't make a big deal of it. It could be the pressure is making her not want to do it but if the attention is away from her drinking she'll start to have more.

Mischance · 24/11/2025 09:25

Being thirsty is very uncomfortable and if she were she would be drinking. It is not something she could control as an act of toddler defiance.

It is possible that she is taking in more liquid than you think with the milk and fruit juice.

Leave drink around and let her have it when she wishes. Do not try to press this on her. Do not even mention it. She will not dehydrate if there is liquid available to her.

As to the toilet training - just continue as normal. The fact that she has good bladder capacity is a positive thing.

Why did you take her to a dietician?

SilentRefluxAdvicePlease · 24/11/2025 09:36

Thank you, both. Reassuring and level headed, which I really need at the moment!
@Mischance, we were referred to the dietician by the health visitor following our two year development review. We spent most of the review talking about constipation and toilet training, as my daughter takes an osmotic laxative and has suffered from constipation since weaning. This has largely been managed well since using the laxative, but we attempted to toilet train in August and noticed witholding behaviour, so decided to pause and are currently trying again. The referral itself was to discuss whether we needed to cut out dairy or soy from her diet, which the dietitian agreed was not necessary, but said we should push the fluids as much as possible. Easier said than done!

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