Baby wont drink - help!

[Cassbo]

My boy is 8.5 months. He won't drink from anything except me. He went through a short phase of accepting a bedtime bottle from me and my partner and even had a couple when we were out and about on odd occasions but that has stopped. He eats fine but won't drink water or diluted juice from any kind of cup I have tried (tried straws, 360 cup, free flow beaker etc). He stayed overnight at my mums recently and had nothing to drink from 4pm - 10am. I'm freaking out and I keep trying to push bottles as I'll be going back to work soon and it's getting desperate. Please if anyone can offer help or advise?

Yeah… I don’t want to be provocative but surely you knew this would be the case and that if you want to use a bottle alongside breastfeeding you need to use it, ideally daily, from a very young age to guarantee acceptance. I wouldn’t push bottles now, he’s likely just going to refuse them. Just keep offering cups, try a std sippy cup rather than 360. he’ll learn what to do. And try not to stress, if he’s thirsty he will drink, otherwise he’ll just wait until you are back. You might find he ends up feeding during the night again (it’s called reverse cycling)

Also, I wouldn’t be offering diluted juice to a baby unless there is a medical need

How to tell that you didn't have a bottle- refuser without saying you didn't have a bottle refuser......

Sorry - no advice apart from making sure they eat lots of watery foods - cucumber, melon, jelly etc.
Mine eventually took water from a sports-type bottle, but never accepted milk in any form unless it was sourced directly 😆

Opposite advice to @Seeline

Give a meal of dry crackers and a cup of water.

lol the opposite I did actually have a bottle refuser. I just knew that it was going to happen as I hadn’t made enough effort with the bottle. On reflection my first comment was unfair. The second part is accurate though, they will drink when they need to

We eventually had some luck (with water and breastmilk, not formula) with tum tum tots straw cups. Extraordinarily messy for a few months while they learnt but they are easy to use as they don’t have a valve in the straw that the baby has to figure out how to manipulate open.

when I was getting rid of the second to last feed (bedtime) the cup got thrown across the room in utter refusal for 17 days straight. He was already using the cup at nursery with no issues. I guess the point is, while the breast is still an option, they may just hold out for it. But that’s ok. They won’t let themselves starve

He will when you go back to work, don't worry.

No advice I’m afraid, just sympathy. I went back to work when DS was 6 months (early 20s now) and dropped to just morning and evening feeds a couple of weeks before. He was a year before he would drink out of anything other than me. Nursery were worried but I’m afraid he just had a lot of yoghurt on top of those two feeds. We had so many cups and teats it was ridiculous and occasionally spooned water into him when it was hot. He’s perfectly healthy. Can you carry on feeding morning and evening?

My first DS was the same. I went back to work at 9 months and he wasn’t drinking water (or anything other than breastmilk) at all. We bought every sippy cup on the market and by the time I’d been back at work for a few days my husband managed to get him to drink water from one of the sippy cups that had a very soft spout. He wouldn’t ever drink milk though, until he got to about age 2 1/2 and discovered babycinnos.