[Grace Bellis]

Does anyone have tricks on increasing water consumed by baby? My 8 month daughter is now drinking formula; instead of breastmilk. She drinks very little plain water that it makes her urine yellow and stool hard. Am wondering on how I can increaes her fluid intake. Any ideas are welcome!

[loraine]

I'm in the same situation as you with my 6 month old. Joe is now on formula milk and shows no interest in water! I just keep trying him with a few sips each day and try to make up for any shortfall with fruit puree. He gets constipated on and offf and I find stewed prunes the best (again he isn't interested in the prune juice!). I tell myself if he were really thirsty he would take the water.

[aldougie]

My daughter is 10 months and would not take water from a tippy up cup - it was more fun to play with it! I noticed some mums at mother & toddler group using cups with straws and tried this with her and she is taking water from that. Also she likes to drink from our cups and so we tend to let her do that as well under close supervision.

You aren't alone with this problem so anyone who has solutions please post - I'd like my daughter to be getting her fluid on her own!

[Grace Bellis]

A friend suggested me to add water into the fruit puree. Also, I have started to dilute the formula a bit, say using 6 oz water for 5 spoonful of formula.

What I had recently tried is to use boiled carrot water (putting carrots into a pot of water and let it boil for about 1.5 hrs). I then use the water to make the formula. I did that once a day for 2 days. It seems to have helped my daughter's hard stool.

[MamaB]

Besides formula I've been giving my daughter diluted apple juice since she's 9 months old for her daily vitamin C intake. Between formula and the watered down juice she definitely produces plenty of wet diapers and doesn't have constipation issue. Basically I'm tackling two issues here (i) to train the kid for the use of cups and (ii) encourage intake of fluids. My strategy has been working pretty well. My daughter NEVER uses a sippy cup (we got 5 of them) but she uses the straw cup quite well (improving everyday). My plan going forward is to dilute the juice with more water so that down the road she'll get use to pure water.

[armstroe]

Like MamaB and Aldougie, I have found the straw cups the best way to encourage my daughter to drink (am using the Playtex and also Munchkin brand - from Wing-On or Eugene Club). I'm using diluted apple juice (about 5parts water to 1 juice) and she is lapping it up.

My elder daughter went solely onto formula at 9 months and for the next few years we had dreadful problems with her constipation. I know now she was lactose intolerant. After only a few weeks on formula she ended up with a tear in her bottom, and that was the start of her problems. I tried everything, prune juice in water, apple juice etc etc, but already she had had the painful experience and had started to withhold, which made her poos harder.

This time around, as much as I think water is the best thing they should drink (after breastmilk and formula), I want to ensure my baby has an adequate fluid intake, so I'm doing the apple juice and water combo.

Also, I've discovered that the prune and apple (or is it prune and banana) Organix baby porridge is excellent for keeping babies regular. Unfortunately it seems to be out of stock. My baby would wolf down a bowl of that every breakfast.

[rani]

I gave Dhruv water when he was 2 months. I know all the books discourage water for breastfed babies, but he was born in the summer and was sweating all the time. He wanted to nurse continuously and I figured he must be thirsty. So I used to give him a couple of ozs of water in-between feeds. Since then he's been drinking water frequently and we taught him the hand-signs for water and milk so he can ask for them.

[yaffle]

I can't help with the water intake, Hannah likes her sippy cup, but over the summer we steamed some cherrys for her, removed the skins and stones and fed her about six, we didn't expect the laxative results, but they were impressive, she liked the cherries too.