Water - having a mild panic!!

[tory79]

Ds, 9 months, is rubbish with water. Doidy cup - he just wants to shove his hands in it. Free flow beaker - he just likes to bash it around and let the water drip all over his legs. Valved beaker - better for mummy's stress levels but he clearly doesnt know what to do with it (ebf and has never had a bottle) so at most I can get him to have a few tiny sips and that's it. It's been getting a bit frustrating, but now I'm having a stupid panic as weve booked to go to Florida in 3 months time and I'm really worried about getting enough fluid into him!

I know that he'll be 1yr by then and 3 months is a long time in a little baby's life, but there's been real progress with water over the last 3 months either!

Does anyone have any good tips for helping them to start drinking better/more? Or else I'll settle for general reassurance that of course he will have figured it out by then

Sorry, obviously that should say NO real progress over the last 3 months either

Sounds pretty normal! I can't remember when mine got the hang of it, I just gave them a beaker with meals and at some point they started drinking. Ds was having a beaker of milk at bedtime at a year old as he didn't want to bf then anymore. If he's still bf then you don't need to worry about his fluids anyhow.

Yes hes still bf on demand, am not so worried for here, especially as he eats so much fruit, but when we are in Florida he'll need a lot more to drink and I'm keen not to spend half my holiday feeding him!

Don't just offer him water at meal times. When you're in the room then keep it with him where he is sat so that he can pick it up and experiment. We bought this one for DD when she started weaning. I hated it, I'd give it to her at our meal times before she was eating so she could get used to it and then when she started weaning I'd hand her the cup every 3 spoonfulls, now it's every 5. The cup was hopeless at first as there is only the one hole but once she got the hang of it things improved hugely. Perhaps it might work for your DS because he should get the water quite quickly. Either that or try a few beakers until you find the right one, I do think you've got to get a good match. Forget about the mess and just go with it. If that really doesn't work then how about offering water in a bottle until he gets used to drinking something else, perhaps after a BF so he isn't gasping. Then after a few days of that move to a beaker.

Thanks lizzy, that is the free flow beaker that I have for him that he bashes around and pours over his legs I will try offering it to him at times other than just mealtimes though.

He's 9 months now and has never had a bottle at all, so I'm not sure there would be any point giving him one now?

How about using a straw ? You can teach them easily by first dipping a straw in, putting your finger over the end, then dribbling it in their mouth. If you use a cup with a lid that has the hole (like you get from fast food places, but you can get plastic ones) they don't spill.

Or use a sports cap bottle - you can squeeze gently to encourage, but they don't need to be sucked

Yes Sports Cap Bottles and Straws are much preferred to anything else by DD who was ebf. She can use the others, but does like playing with the water much more with those as well as drinking.

Thanks both, what sort of straw cups do you use?

Mine are like this - but I had a multi pack of plain ones. Worked with wide disposable straws, so easy to clean

I think I'm lucky in that my ds will drink anything from anything and adores his cup (no way of making this not sound like a stealth boast) however, in case it helps, I do normally brita filter and boil the water, which he has in a Nuk sippy cup. I reckon it tastes nicer filtered and boiled. I hate tap water do I figured he might not like it either