DS with AS won't drink enough-any experience anyone?

[Tiggiwinkle]

My DS5 is 9 and has AS. He has always needed reminding to drink; however, this has got much worse recently. He went away on a school trip for 5 days a few weeks ago and came back in a very anxious state, showing symptoms we have not seen for some years.

He is now not only reluctant to drink, he has also developed what seems to be a fear of swallowing his own saliva and keeps spitting it out in the sink. I am obviously very concerned that he is going to get dehydrated in the heat. I have tried explaining to him why he must drink but so far to no avail.

He is not under the CDC at the moment although we can get a re-referrral if necessary-it looks like we may have to do so.

I seem to remember someone on here had this problem in the past (Peachy?) and wondered how it had been dealt with?

No-one else then?

sorry AS not my feild. but would he drink a fruit shoot or smoothie?
also what about a sukie sports bottle?
bump for someone who has a clue

will he eat ice lollies or sorbet?

perhaps one of those 'fountain' cups?

or slush puppy type drink? (a decent blender will crush ice)

or perhaps a hot chocolate?

He is not even drinking his usual favourite of strawberry milkshake without an awful lot of encouragement. (Sorry-not sure what a sukie bottle is, 2shoes?)

He will eat iced lollies, but the trouble is I don't think it would be enough to keep his fluids up. Also he is not touching his drinks at school, so is going all day without a drink (despite my telling the school repeatedly that he needs reminding at the moment.)

Plus the spitting out of saliva is compounding the problem, if you see what I mean.

suckie sorry

i really dont know anything about this at all im sorry, but how about sweetie types that will cause a build up of saliva? so he swallows with the sweet and he kinda 'gets over' the anxiety of it? Perhaps??? im sorry, as ive said, im only guessing - i was thinking mints or starburst/opal fruit type things.

or perhaps the exact opposite? dry crackers, or salty crisps? then when he is thirsty.... im rambling now... sorry

I don't know either - is his throat sore/red? Has he had a vomiting or choking fright?
We had a bad patch getting ds to drink ( I think it is poor needs awareness not a swallowing phobia), so had to go back to his toddler sucky cups and he still has these (at 8.5!)for a couple of drinks a day. He also likes smoothies and juices particularly tomato and especially out of a carton/straw. The drawback is that he refuses water! I find mature cheddar good to get ds drinking - but if your ds is dehydrated you are probably avoiding anything salty.
What about 'coctails' with ice and pretty colours in the garden?
Hope you solve it soon it must be very worrying.

I have this with dd1. she is 3 and ASD, and for most of her life has refused to drink.

We tackle it mostly with diet. so, she has porridge for breakfast (absorbs loads of milk, then an Organix fruit pot added (they are mostly water anyway)). Then she has some cereal, again with more milk.

she has all foods in sauces (every drop counts!) so has soup for lunch, or spag bol, curry etc - anyhting where I can water down the sauce to get more flluid into her. same for tea.

Have you tried extra custard etc? rice pudding? jelly is another good one - it's obv mostly water. And the Alpro soya desserts, and fruit puree pots designed for babies - all good by way of water content.

will your ds eat fruit? if so, then add in grapes, melon, oranges - all great for staving off dehydration.

dd1 is at the moment (touches wood frantically) drinking again, but this is a maximum of 200ml fluids in 24hrs. The rest she still gets form diet. She has just come out of a period of about 9 months where she did not drink a single drop at all during the day, and she has never yet been dehydrated - we have managed this through diet.

If you search my name, you will come up with a coulpe of threads from last summer with some good advice re: drinking.

I hope you find a solution. It is a huge worry when they do not drink. I think what helped us enormously was us abcking off totally, secure that dd1 was getting enough fluids from diet, and slowly, slowly, dd1 came around to drinking again. It has been a long fight.

Many thanks for all your replies.

His diet is pretty tricky too-he will not eat any food with sauces (has pasta with no sauce for instance), will eat no fruit except the occasional banana; will not have any soups, gravy etc or- any "wet food" really. He was also recently diagnosed as coeliac. He usually drinks quite a bit of milk with milkshake in it, but not at the moment. He does have his drinks in various non-spill cups already (like your DS magso!) but it seems to make no difference what it is in.

I think it is usually needs awareness with him too, but there is a definite resistance at the moment which seems to have begun as a result of the school trip, He did not enjoy it very much and found it very difficult I think.

I will persevere for a few more days-if he does not improve I will probably dontact the CDC.