BellaOnline Forums Family Early Childhood Need suggestions!

OK my sister has been fighting with her daughter for a week now about drinking her water and when i was there yesterday It was crazy!! She is so stubborn she wont drink her water.. She pits it out and refuses to swallow all she will drink are thos sugary juices.. My sister says she has tried everything but nothing works.. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get my niece to drink water willingly again??

Does she water down the juices? Our pediatrician never recommended giving 100% juice, it was requested that we water it down and only give out 4-8 ozs a day.

She could start watering down the juice. Start at 1/4 water 3/4 juice, until she gets it to 1/4 juice 3/4 water. I try to never make my daughters juice more than 1/3 juice to 2/3 water.

Another idea is have her pick out a special water cup or two on her own. Mommy could have one too. I noticed that my daughters loved drinking from some promo cups I got somewhere that have a straw attached. Everytime they saw me drinking from it they wanted it. When mommy has a water break her daughter may want to do the same.

Tallons,

How old is the daughter?

Depending on the age, I'd have several suggestions...

Violette's answer was a great one... a special cup can do wonders.

During meals, we get our girls to drink more by playing "Cheers!" We click our glasses together and say "cheers" and take a drink of water together for each time. They like to do it OVER and OVER.

When our first was really little and never wanted to drink at all... we brought a straw cup (one of the kind you buy in the baby sections) in with us when we would read books, which is her FAVORITE thing to do. Each page turn she would need to take a drink before we would continue.

Also, for little ones, "races" can be great. I wonder if you can drink all of that before I count to 5, or 10 or whatever?

Lastly, we have a "little mouse" in our house. Sometimes when we look away, the little mouse sneaks out and drinks her water. Then we can turn back and be surprised and look for the mouse who disappeared so quickly. Sometimes we try again to see if he'll come back and we can catch sight of him this time!

In general, I always recommend making a game of it, rather than a power struggle.

Hope any of that helps!!

Nicki

Those sugary drinks are so bad for her teeth. Watering down the juices might work, but do it gradually. Try not to make a power struggle. And yes, a special cup reserved just for water might work too.

My daughter likes it when i put lemon wedges in her water. She also really likes this new brand of water called Wataah. I dont know why she likes it so much but hey im not complaining.

Those are all great suggestions.. Right now I have her drinking watered down juice.. but i still want her drinking no sugar.. I might try that wataah drink... I found the site for it it looks pretty good. www.drinkwataah.com/

I have one daughter who often prefers water, and another who always wants juice. So I only buy 100% juice (no sugar added) and dilute it by half.

At bedtime, my juice-lover knows it is water only, but that took several instances of me taking a stand. The rest of the time I don't mind if she drinks diluted juice. I've not made it an issue except at bedtime; now she is trained and requests water like her big sis.