NOW CLOSED: Share your child's favourite drink or tip for keeping thirst at bay for the summer months and you could win a £100 Tesco voucher

[AnnMumsnet]

Britvic are working with Tesco.com to provide 4 downloadable guides that offer Mums top tips for keeping the family active and hydrated during summer.

You can download the guides here.

On this thread they want MNers to share their own top tips for keeping children cool this summer (home or abroad) - and to share your thoughts on keeping children hydrated.

For example:
What drinks do your children like to have? Do they like ice in their juice?
Does your child complain of being thirsty or do you have to remind them to drink?
What kind of drinks do you pack for days out? What would be a treat for your children, drinks-wise?

Add your thoughts and comments to this thread and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher to spend on summer provisions at Tesco.

Some T&Cs: The prize draw is open to GB residents (England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland) aged 18+. Normal exclusions apply. One entry per person. Entries can be made at Mumsnet.com. Closing date for all entries is midnight 10th August 2012 .

Thanks,
MNHQ

Um. Drink water?

Doh! Beaten to it.

Water. From a tap.

I like gin.

Usually water, sometimes I put it in sports bottles so the DCs feel it's "the drink of athletes".
If they're a bit short on fruit, I have been known to freeze fresh apple juice into ice lollies, sometimes with a couple of berries too. I tell them they're only allowed one, so they think it's a treat (but I know it's a glass of fruit juice)

I put the dc's drinks bottles (full of water) in the freezer overnight. They love taking their frozen ice to school and it melts over the course of the day. I don't fill them completely so there is room for expansion. If I think they will need a drink before any has melted I top it up with water. Also has the benefit that ice doesn't spill on books!

I do the same for days out. At home I freeze squash/ fruit juice for homemade ice lollies. Or innocent smoothie tubes. Also very useful for toddlers if they bump their mouths as they will eat an ice lolly, but not tollerate an ice pack.

DD doesn't really like water, but loves squash. (like me). We have several different flavours of no added sugar squash in the house. Occasionally she'll have diluted apple juice. I have no problem getting her to drink squash & she loves vimto flavour squash at the moment.

When it's really hot I'll make up a bottle of squash the night before & freeze it to take out and about the next day.

We usually use reusable sports bottles or reuse water bottles. I always carry a few drinks around with me so we don't have to buy any when we're out.

mine like orange juice or ribena best, would prefer if they drink water but unless they are really really thirsty they don't really tend to drink much of it (except the baby cos i wont let him have oj or ribena at under 1 yr...)

i dont have to remind them to drink, they are always asking

as a treat drink they love chocolate milk, but wouldnt take that out and about incase of it going off not being kept in fridge

If he's thirsty, he'll ask for water.

If he's eating, he likes juice.

If it's bedtime, he likes milk.

Ds drinks water,water and more water. As a treat he likes frozen water ice cubes/stars/shapes in his water.

Dd has a sweeter tooth. She loves blackcurrant squash. She also likes fruit juice (usually apple) diluted with water 50/50. Both have had it watered down since being toddlers and now prefer it this way.

On days we refill fruitshoot bottles with fruit juice/squash/water and freeze them the night before.

As a treat the dcs like mixing up flavours and creating their own drinks,especially soda streams. They count having a straw or an icepop as a treat.

DS mostly drinks water, milk or squash. For picnics or as a treat, he'll get a carton or bottle of juice. I really like (so does DS!) drinks that are mixes of pure juice and water. I think they're more thirst-quenching than pure juice. Fruit Shoot do a version called "My 5" that I get sometimes.

I sometimes fret that he's not had enough to drink in the hot weather and if I feel he needs encouraging to drink water, I'll give it to him in a sports bottle (for some reason, that's a Big Treat, despite him having bottles with sports cap since he was about a year old!) or add a couple of ice cubes to plain water. For days out I'll freeze a bottle of tap water to keep the picnic cool and DS likes to drink the water as it melts.

Nice to see that Tesco/Britvic are still peddling that "everyone needs 8 glasses of water a day" myth...

Out and about, ds(6) and I just have water, but if we are stopping for a drink he can choose a smoothie or juice (doesn't like fizzy drinks anyway).
At home he has milk, water, juice (usually diluted as he prefers it), squash or milky tea. But mostly water

DS does like ice if its hot, and a straw, so I often carry a wide necked water bottle which its easy to put ice cubes in and the straws can go inside. He never needs reminding to drink

Sometimes I do struggle to get them to drink enough, especially ds1 who has toileting issues but still we tend to have motly water really. Sometimes juice or squash. When it is very hot and we are out for the day I do resort to bribary in the form of cartons of juice but we also have drinks bottles full of water. At home we make ice lollies which are always good for getting extra fluid into them. At the moment we are working our way through my stocks of homemade elderflower cordial.

I make sure they have a glass of water at all meals and snacks then try to press more drinks onto them if we've been running around in the park. Often ds1 will drink very little all day then down several glasses of water at dinner and then wet the bed. When struggling I've been known to express a glass of breast milk as he is guaranteed to down that instantly .

My pet bugbear is that DS won't drink squash. Not a problem, you would think (He drinks water. Never milk. Very occasionally orange juice. Nothing else) - except that the school don't provide water at breaks or when they go to away matches - just huge bottles of made-up squash . DS dislikes squash to the extent that he will go through a baking hot afternoon of sport without drinking anything and comes home really quite badly dehydrated and in a foul mood as a result. I keep telling him he has to ask for water, but he won't, and he is really bad (both DC are) at recognising when he needs a drink - but it affects his mood very quickly when he hasn't had enough to drink.

Both DC have refillable water bottles for holiday club (and DD for school) and I also buy packs of disposable sports-bottle water for outings/long days at holiday camps. If they are taking more than one then I will freeze one to act as an ice pack and to be the last bottle of the day.

DD does like Ribena, and juice, and smoothies, and milk, so is generally easier to please and I can't see the same problem with matches and the like with her. She still gets (and accepts) water as the default, though - I think one thing that has made a huge difference is having a plumbed in fridge with water and ice dispenser - the DC help themselves to cold, filtered water whenever they like and have therefore never got used to needing something to 'hide' the taste of tap water.

As a treat? DS would still choose water (or maybe a milkshake, but probably water). DD lusts after fruit shoots, mainly because I simply refuse to buy them, so she only ever gets them at (other people's) parties .

DS drinks mostly water or very diluted high juice. If it is hot he likes homemade icelollies rather than ice in his drinks. He drinks really well and I dont need to remind him. For treats he likes a fruit juice carton. When we are out and about he usually has water/squash from home in a sports bottle. Sometimes he will have a soya milkshake when out, if we can find any!

Water, water, apple juice, water, ribena, ice cubes on their own on hot nights, ice lollies, milk. More water.

mine both like water, they occasionally have orange juice, squash or ribena.
DD likes having ice in her drinks.

They will not drink milk or milk-shake drinks and dont like fizzy/carbonated drinks either. It is juice or water at our house and thats what I would take for our days out.

Sometimes if we are home they can go for ages without having a drink and I make a point of letting them get their drinks themselves (they are 10 and 8yo) however if for example we go out to a family pub for a meal or on a day trip out ...... then they will guzzle away like you have never seen before!

The treat drink here is J2O. They are allowed it if we go out for a meal.

My lads have never been water or milk drinkers and I never allowed fruit juice until I was happy with their dental routine. Very dilute sugar free squash was the only option we had but there was never any hazard of dehydration that way.

Favourite drinks were always the ones they weren't allowed. They were very disappointed when they finally got to try fruit juice.

They are old enough to be out and about and buying their own now but they still don't tend to buy sugary drinks

Water. Sometimes they ask for juice but we don't have it regularly. I pretty much only drink water so that is what they see. Top tip - have a drink where they can reach it.

He just drinks good old fashioned H20 - haven't yet been satisfied that squash etc won't damage his teeth

Cooled herbal tea, the sweeter tasting ones like strawberry and mango by Twinings. I don't give dd (16 mo) squash because of the chemicals in it (especially sulphites, which I'm allergic to) or fruit juice, because of the sugar content, fructose is very high GI without the fibre from he fruit,..

I also make smoothies of milk and berries and banana. She mostly drinks water though.

Ds and dd will drink anything.

Straws and icecubes make it seem like a more exciting prospect - especially if I get out the curly straws! :)

For the record I HATE no added sugar drinks that have lots of artificial sweeteners in instead. I I ever go through phases of worrying about their teeth I either make the squash more dilute or just do more milk or water.

DD and DS1 both would prefer blackcurrant squash if it's in a cup but if I fill up the water table or it's rained they'll both drink outside water despite the earwigs and bumble bees swimming around in it. I often let them 'wash up' so they drink something, otherwise they nag me for squash all day long.

As a treat they like a juice box or chocolate milk.

My DD (4 yrs old) will only drink water . She refuses milk (despite, or maybe because of having bf well for many months) and juice/squash outright. She does eat well and has plenty of fruit and likes it, and she also enjoys yoghurt, so I make sure that on hot days she has healthy drinks in frozen form by making our own frozen lollipops, which she loves and is always proud to share with friends.

I have to constantly encourage her to drink. This appears hereditary as I also have the same problem, and the same with my Grandparents, but boy do we get grumpy if dehydrated! For sometime I did this by "take a sip for every friend or family member you can name" and so we would work our way through Aunts and cousins, each deserving a sip. We now do it with "for everything you see the colour... (red)". This technique works out and about too, and the / a game takes their mind off feeling it is a boring chore to drink.

On days out, we always carry water with us, DD takes a small bottle in a back-pack, and I take a larger bottle which I can either drink or use to top up her smaller bottle.

I am just beginning to make headway and have managed to get DD to drink smoothies without freezing them explaining the benefits to teeth, bones and not getting colds through the calcium and vitamins which see appears to enjoy learning a bit about.

A treat for my DD would be a smoothie, and if packaged to fit in a lunchbox or day-bag without making a mess and staying cool, then they are great for a quick pick-me-up as they are both hydrating and nutritional so can fill a hunger and thirst hole, and superb for those walks back to the car

Water is the 'default' drink in our house, and is what all 3 dcs have with all their meals. They are pretty good at drinking (and asking for drinks) but are still young, so will get distracted by playing and don't always remember to drink as much as they need to. Ice, straws, cordial and fruit juice are all regarded as very special treats....any combination is well received!

I have 2 secret weapons for really hot days, when I'm really keen to make sure they're properly hydrated: 1) Ribena and 2) Home-made apple-juice ice lollies.

For days at activity camps I send them with a re-fillable bottle of water for during the day, and a carton of juice for lunch. That way I can absolutely guarantee they'll be drinking.....!