7 month old won't drink water, what juice is safe to give her?

[Catonkey]

DD is 7 months next week - she is on 4 milk feeds and 3 meals a day (combination of purees and finger foods) and is doing really well. However she will not accept water, she will drink from a cup or beaker but spits it out as soon as it's in her mouth.

I bought a small, 150ml bottle of Heinz juice (said suitable for 4-36 months on the bottle) and added a small amount to some cooled, boiled water - about 1oz to 5oz water. She accepted this a lot easier and drank around an ounce. It's stupidly expensive though, cost 80p for a small bottle and said to discard any left after 24 hours. The big bottles are around £2 and only last 4 days. I don't want to give her it undiluted as the sugar content seemed quite high and she was fine with just a little.

Are there any other juices that I can safely add to her water? DP and I don't really drink juice, just water and sugar free squash, which I know I can't give her.

Crikey, I do ramble on don't I apologies for the long post!

If you just keep giving her water she will drink it in the end, honest.

DS used to spit water out but I think it was just because he enjoyed doing it , but now he does drink it when thirsty.

I've always perservered with the water. All mine spit at first as it's so different to warm sweet milk they are used to but eventually accept it and all drink water happily now.

I would also persevere with the water. Could you diminish the amount of juice you add to her water (I know it's not much even now) until you get back to just plain water?

Yup, my now 9 month old DD did the same until just over 7 months - she'd take big swigs but just let it pour out of her mouth rather than swallow it. Then she just seemed to get it. I'd persevere with water.

I wouldn't want to give a sugar free volvic to a baby, they can still be acidic and sweeteners at 6 months? I would avoid for a while.

Keep going with the water, mine didn't drink much at all until about 9/10 months then started to glug it down. IME it is hard to get some babies drinking water once they love juice drinks.

If you did want to give a bit of juice, I would just use pure orange or pure apple juice well diluted, you can get the small cartons to save wasting it.

Thanks for the advice, I will try perservering with the water, maybe a change of drinking vessel - I hear the doidy cups are quite good?

EightiesChick I may try your suggestion too, if i can get her to drink it with juice added and reduce the amount I am adding she may get used to drinking it anyway iyswim and not notice it's not juice!

Doidy cups are good, but tbh the vessel made no difference to DS, he just took his time to decide that water was an acceptable thing to swallow

He didn't stop spitting it out until he was one, sorry....

Doidy made no difference here either, we just used the tommee tippee cups with the folding spout.

But they are 3 and 4 now and still ask for water, we don't have squash in the house at all. Pure fruit juice or smoothie at breakfast time, and that's it

Folding spout? I've not seen them anywhere, I'm using the Tomme Tippe one at the minute with the valve (have also tried with the valve out so it flowed freely) or a little Medela cup with a curved lip.

I'm not overly worried if she doesn't drink a lot, she has fruit and veg purees so there is water in those, if she struggles to poo then I try to give her a bit more fruit and it seems to help. It's maybe a bit of a game to her too, she has a big grin on her face after she's spat it out :o I've just heard that some people have "missed the window" when it comes to drinking anything other than milk and struggle when their children are older.

Seems perseverance is the only way forward!

tommee tippee first cup Bog standard cup, we have loads of them.

My 9mo DD does the same thing with water. I asked the HV and she told me to just keep giving water. Don't worry about their liquid intake at this age at all.

You could try sugar free cordial. My hv suggested this instead of the baby juices as she said they are as acidic as coca cola. Just make sure it's very diluted and just enough for taste.

But sugar free isn't really healthy healthy isn't it? Most things label as sugar free means it's got a sweetner. You have to make a decision if aspartame is good for your LO for example. I won't say it's evil, but I hate the taste of aspartame in my mouth. I can taste it immediately if someone give me diet coke.

Totally agree with persevering, she will drink it eventually. If you introduce juice at such a young age she's less likely to take water in the long run.

Im in the same situation. My 9mo now rarely drinks water from any form of cup...he seemed interested at first....but now the lips are sealed and a firm shake of the head!!!

But the general advice on here and other mums i know is just be patient. The prob dont need alot at the moment as they are on a fair amount of milk (My LO is 2x8oz and 1x6oz a day). Always have his/her bottle their so that one day they will just start to use it.

I bought the Heinz juice, although it has got carbohydrates in it this is the sugar naturally found in fruit, their is no added sugar or sweetners in it. If an apple came with a labelon it there would be a fair amount of "sugar" in that too. And you could do the weaning off the juice plan you suggested....My LO still had no interest. Ah well looks like i'll be drinking it then...

If your DD will only drink juice, and you need to get fluids in to her (whilst you keep trying plain water) then you can give her any kind of fruit juice (heavily diluted). There's no particular kind that's banned, and you don't need to buy special baby juice.

cheekey it's actually not what you'll get juicing an apple. The two main ingredient is WATER, then CONCENTRATED APPLE JUICE, on its website. The devil is in the concentrated bit. Normal fruit that you squeeze yourself is commonly not as sweet as the concentrated stuff. If you look on the labels on a lot of fruit juices, you'll find they add concentrated juice to make it sweeter. I'm not sure what the regulation is in the UK, but in NZ you can't claim you have freshly squeezed juices if you add concentrated juice. There was a case years ago where a company selling freshly squeezed orange juice did just that to sweeten their drinks.

Is she FF? One of my friends had a good suggestion about using water with a few scoops (but not as much formula as a normal feed) and then gradually reducing the formula amounts till she's drinking just water.

My ds is the same. I have tried and tried. He is ebf and won't take ebm from a bottle or a cup either. I need to leave him 3 days whilst at work so need to ensure he has some fluids whilst I am away. He breastfeeds as normal whilst we are together. I give him boiled water with a tablespoon of 100 % pressed apple juice ( not from concentrate). He takes this very well. I really don't think this would harm in the grand scale of things. I appreciate that water Is much better all round and if your child will take it great! But if they wont then it is more Important he drinks something whilst I am away. I also wonder how many of the people saying to preserver with just water, drink just boiled water themselves, or give just boiled water to older children. Not many I would think and that's probably because it's horrible!!

I'd persevere with water, I think it's a pretty bad habit to get into. DS didn't drink water for ages, until it was warm (around 8 months) and then all of a sudden he started drinking loads. I assume he didn't need it till then.

My ds is the same. I have tried and tried. He is ebf and won't take ebm from a cup whilst I am away at work either.
I give him boiled water with a tablespoon of 100% pressed apple juice ( not from concentrate). He takes this well and I am happy he is having some fluids whilst I am away.
Obviously water is best and great if they take it! I am a nurse and a sensible mother but for goodness sake what harm can a spoon of pure fruit juice do? I wonder how many of those telling you to preserver with water drink just boiled water themselves? Or give it to older children? Not many I suspect and that's because it's bloody horrible!