My daughter of almost 7 months is absolutely refusing to drink water
My daughter Ione is almost 7 months old. She was 71b 3oz at birth and currently weighs 151b. She is fed Hipp Organic Formula at 7.30am (6oz), 2.30pm (4-5oz), 6.30pm (7-8oz) and solids at 8am (half a Weetabix plus fruit purée/Ready Brek/baby cereal), 11.30am (7 cubes consisting of fish/chicken/turkey/pork with various vegetables plus yoghurt or fruit) and 5pm (7 cubes of vegetables plus a banana). She is fed 70% homemade and 30% commercial food.
She wakes at 7.30am, naps 9-9.45am, 12.15-2.15pm and has a catnap in the afternoon if required. She settles herself at all nap times and goes down at 7pm and has slept through consistently since she was 9 weeks (I have not needed to go to her once!).
My problem is that Ione will not take water I have tried 2 different beakers and tried buying diluted water (Heinz) and adding orange juice. She acts like it is poison and keeps her mouth firmly closed. When I pretend to drink from the beaker she will sometimes copy but most of the water will get spat out!
She is never constipated, seems to wee fairly frequently and doesn’t seem to be suffering healthwise. However, her lack of fluids worry me as her solids increase and her milk decreases.
Please help! Many thanks.
Miranda
Ione has been taking all her milk from a bottle and now is being offered water in a beaker. Unless she took water from a bottle in her first few months, she has to get used to two new ideas. It will take time, but persevere and keep offering her water every day. It is often easier to offer a very small amount of water in an open cup rather than giving it in a spouted beaker. Ione needs to learn how to sip water rather than suck it. All the spouted beakers require sucking. The ones with a valve inside which prevent leaks need a very strong suck to receive any fluid. This can be a cause of frustration in babies.
As you have noticed, Ione does not appear to be lacking fluids even though her milk needs will begin to decline. She will begin to need less fluid as she gets bigger so as long as you offer her water everyday she will gradually learn how to drink it.