Tips on getting babies to drink more water

[fiyawataa]

I have a 9 month old baby who's been suffering from constipation since he started weaning. He takes lactulose twice daily but his poos are still small, hard and sore to come out :( I'm pretty sure that if he drank more water this would help him a great deal. So what tricks do you guys have to get the. To drink? Any special cups you would recommend?

Cheers

I tried loads of different cups to get the one that DD would drink from, I think it was a bog standard Boots one. So you may have to shop around. I should say she didn't drink much water until she was about a year old. Don't forget that her food has loads of water in it, plus of course whatever milk she's drinking. Lots of fruit and veg.

The only thing which made my dd drink more water was to make it into juice. I really didn't want to give her juice and it was one of the things when I was pregnant which I was adamant about.

You could also try blitzing up a tin of prunes in the food processor and giving him a bit.

I have exactly the same problem with my nearly-8 month old. I'm feeding her raspberries at every opportunity! High in fibre and she LOVES them. But she's still constipated and has a terrible cold / terrible teething dribble, both of which are making her a bit dehydrated.

I just use a free flow sippy cup with DD. She loves it.

Ella's kitchen do prune fruit pouches- never fails if you're having issues with constipation!

How about trying water-rich foods like cucumber, watermelon, melons etc... also I found that a couple dried apricots did the trick with relieving constipation. Warm water helps with constipation / malteser poops
If baby doesn't drink out of sippy cups then try a regular plastic cup, my 9month DD likes her plastic cup.

Should babies drink water? I thought milk

I agree with the prunes up thread and then no need to worry about the water.

They can have water with food from 6 months

I just use the very basic tommee tippee cups & keep offering. Dd2 was terrible in early weaning for not drinking water at all, but she was (and still is a year later) a milk monster

Thanks guys. I've tried prunes loads already and it hasn't really helped. Will give apricots a go though.. and maybe a normal cup. He loves his cucumber so at least he get water there :) and raspberry are just the cutest thing to watch them eat :) For those of you who had constipation problems- how long did it last.. Cause I'm starting to feel like it's going on forever.

don't give bananas and offer orange for constipation

The constipation lasts for a few days only.
Have you looked at baby massage - that would help too. YouTube has tons of videos

Have you tried stewed apricots? Basically, just simmer dried apricots with enough water to cover them until they go soft. I used to purée them and give this to my daughter with plain yoghurt. Also used to eat them myself to get rid of post natal constipation

It's been 3 months now :(

Will try the apricots for sure- sounds delicious too

When I gave mine little open cups they loved them and it helped get them drinking. I sat down with my lo and drank from one aswell as they love to copy. Only put a teeny drop of water or milk at the beginning. I used babycup and it was really good.

I also wasn't keen on my DD having juice....but she was really constipated too! So I squeezed an orange and diluted the juice (I bought a cheap juicer, and now she likes diluted Apple, carrot and pineapple juices). That got her pooping nicely. As long as it's with a meal, and baby isn't sucking on a teat/spout for hours on end, and has any teeth brushed regularly it's fine!

Are they allowed mashed up watermelon without seeds? Can't remember how big lumps can be at that age.

Certainly not much banana, that can slow things down.

Prune juice given by syringe used to work well for ds.

Oh yeah!! And watermelon!! I tend to buy a whole one, cut it up into wedges and freeze it. Once it's frozen, DD sucks it through a Nüby Nibbler like an ice lolly great now that the weather is getting warmer too!

After I started weaning DS onto solids at around 6mo, he had been exclusively breast fed. Bottle refuser. Confused by cups.

He got badly constipated and I was desperate to get water into him.

The consipation made him squirmy and wriggly at night, crying when he needed to poo it got pretty bad.

In a desperate moment after he refused water from a cup once again, I thought about how Calpol comes with a little syringe...

I filled up the cleaned Calpol syringe with water from a cup, squirted it gradually into his mouth, and lo behold he loved drinking water this way! His constipation was cured straight away.

After doing this a couple times he took to a sippy cup no problem. It is important to get water into them after solids (and constipation) are introduced.

We are in the same position 6 weeks into weaning- ds is 7 months. He has lactulose and is often still in pain with hard poos, it is heartbreaking. We are doing mostly blw but he has started ignoring he fruit and veg and just wanted bread etc.

He takes small amounts from a sippy cup or normal adult glass! But I mean very small amounts. Sometimes I mix some prune purée with loads of water and he takes it off a spoon. Sometimes he takes water off a spook. It is really worrying me so my sympathies are with you OP. I wish he could just get on with it and eat whatever he fancies but I feel like I have to be careful all the time