Drinking

Just wondering if anyone has any other ideas for getting a child to drink anything other than milk. He is 14 months old and at the moment he has 1 bottle (250 mL water, 2 scoops formula) in the morning, 1 the same in the afternoon, and then 260 mL of milk. We have been warming up the milk, but giving him the formula at room temp (though he rarely finishes the whole lot). we have tried getting him to take milk, water and juice from a cup but he won't take any of them. We have also tried putting the water or juice in the bottle but he won't take it this way either. We have tried every type of cup you can buy, tried playing with water, and everything else people have suggested too. He can't frink through a straw so that doesn't help either. I am just wondering if anyone's children have been through this, or you might have some ideas. It is starting to really warm up so that is why he now has 3 botles (it used to be 2), but I think he needs more fluid still. People have suggested only offering him the water, and just a bottle of milk at bed time, but then he doesn't drink anything and he just dehydrates. Any help would be great. Thanks

Try those little juice boxes...they make them for babies/toddlers and hold the straw to his mouth and squeeze a bit in at a time. This is how I taught my DS to drink from a straw. He now holds it (well snatches it off me :lol:) and drinks independently. He thinks he is a clever little thing...then you could try a cup with a straw or a bottle of water with a straw.

Have you tried those pop top bottles. Fill one with water and let him try, most babies love them!!

I was going to suggest the pop top bottles filled with water, Jack is not quite 1 and can now hold and drink from one independantly but wont hold his milk bottle :rolleyes:

Beware of those juice boxes - they contain twice as much juice as the maximum daily amount recommended for toddlers. Toddlers don't need juice, and if he's not drinking enough anyway it would be better to get him drinking water than anything else.

Have you considered giving him a cup without a lid (a plastic child's normal drinking cup)? You will certainly get some spills still at that age, but Jack really loved the novelty of it at that age and sometimes insisted on drinking from a "big boy cup" instead of his sippy or straw ones. It could be worth a try and then it saves you having to transition him to them down the track.