What approach do you take with drinks?

[cath~]

With food we very much take the approach that we decide the what (ie what's offered), when and where, and L decides whether and how much.  We never try to coax or cajole her to eat more, and never praise her if she eats a lot/all her meal (although mil does this sometimes).  We want to teach L to decide what she likes for herself and also whether she is hungry or not.  Also want her to enjoy meals and good home cooking.  This approach seems to be working well as she is quite an adventurous eater and always wants to try new things, even though she doesn't alwAys like them.  I've heard this approach recommended by others too.

Anyway, with drinks, is it still ok to let LOs decide when they are thirsty?

 The reason I ask is that L seems to hardly ever be thirsty and really doesn't drink that much at all each day.  I try to encourage her to drink more and explain that her body needs it, but I don't feel entirely comfortable doing this as it goes against me wanting her to decide.  At home she is only offered water or milk.  Sometimes when we're out she'll have a juice and drink it all v quickly.

What approach do you take with drinks for your lo?  Is it different to how you approach food? 

Does anyone know how much drink an lo actually needs each day?  (I guess this depends on what they eat too, and how hot/active the day is)

Thanks

[michaeljacknnugg]

If you look on the NICE guidelines for bedwetting there is a guide in there, I think it's 1000-1400ml for DS's age group but may well be less for L.

We have water available at all times in a sports bottle and offer specifically at mealtimes. I don't try to push him to drink but may hand him the bottle if it's been ages. At nursery they used to offer with all snacks and meals, and not push in between.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I kept water or really watered down juice (like an oz of juice with 7 oz of water) in a spill proof cup for each of the kids at that age. I do the same as you regarding foods but I do push the liquids a bit (more so in summer). If they are whining they are hungry after having just ate I get them a drink as usually they are thirtsy but never seem to know the difference (tbh I am the same!). It also helps to remember that liquid in the foods they eat counts too.

[creations]

I take the same approach as you with food, but I am a little more encouraging with drinks (so basically same as you too from the sounds of it).
It's pointless leaving a drink out all day for DS as he just wouldn't drink it (they all have water bottles at pre-school but I think he has to be told to go have a drink or he would be unlikely to have any).  He has milk in the morning and the rest of the day is water only - with breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner. If it's hot or we've been out or physical I offer some extra drinks but he has a sip unless asked to drink more which I do do at times.  A hand full of times when it was super hot I offered a drop of lemon juice in his water and he guzzled it down, I know I could get him to drink more if there was a bit of juice in it but then it would likely be more than he needs.
He has lots of fruit too which contains a lot of water.

[weaver]

I think it all comes down to pee!

Honestly, if her pee is overly concentrated or dark in colour, or she pees infrequently, then I would push the drinks a bit more.  If not, not.

LO1 doesn't drink much at all while LO2 is a real sponge, just guzzles down liquids. And they are treated the same so some of it is personal preference.  I do think having a 'special bottle' (sports flask or whatever) helps with encouraging drinks when out and about, and I leave those on the table at their level when they are playing at home.  I don't follow them about with them, but I leave them within reach.  And any time they eat, I pour them a drink - always water, sometimes milk for LO2 (LO1 doesn't like it), and very occasionally juice + water.  But I don't comment if they don't drink it, just like with food.

Do you sit down for a drink sometimes?  That would be a good way of encouraging her without 'pushing'.

[Buntybear]

I just think that some LOs like to drink - some don't. Olly is a drinker so it is not something that I have to deal with. Mind you he does drink very diluted squash mostly - he doesn't like water

[clazzat]

I used to worry about this with dd1 as she barely drinks anything, whereas dd2 and ds drink a lot, but I realised that when the weather warms up she drinks a lot more so I think that she is able to tell when she is thirsty so I leave her to make up her own mind.  I never refuse to get her water, and there is generally water in reach if she wants it, but I don't ever ask her to drink or push water on her.  She also drinks much less juice than dd2 when she is offered it - dh also drinks very little, unlike me, so I think it is just a personal preference thing.

[*Ali*]

I push drink more than food. Both my kids are really bad at drinking and would go the whole day on one 200ml drink if I let them I think. I didn't used to worry about it too much as I assumed they just didn't need much but actually when Cadan had allergy tests done they commented on his kidney function and said he needed to drink more as he was showing signs of dehydration.

I always just offer drinks and let them choose what they want. We only have water, plain fizzy water, milk or fresh juice (which is diluted with at least twice as much water) on offer. We don't have squash or fizzy in the house unless for a special party or the like. Mostly they will have a couple cups of milk, one cup of diluted juice (I limit it to one for dental health reasons) and then water in a sippy at BT. Colby often chooses fizzy water whereas Cadan chooses milk mostly. At each meal I just ask what drink they want with their food. If I get myself a drink between meals I ask if anyone else wants one. Once they have a drink in a cup I just leave it on the coffee table for them to help themselves. When we go out to classes or playgroup I take sports bottle along and offer it at regular intervals. If I feel they haven't drunk enough (we aim for 1L+ as per NICE guidelines for a 4-8yo) I will point that out and ask them to drink as much as they can and they will normally down 100ml.

[cath~]

Thanks for all your replies.  Interesting reading!

I will reply properly in a bit.

[creations]

Ali, until I read your post I still believed the (myth) that fizzy water is bad for teeth!  DS will have a nice surprise next time we are out at a restaurant and he can have fizzy water with his meal

[*Ali*]

It is marginally (3x?) worse than still water because of the mild acidity of the gas but is 100x better than things like coke,lemonade or straight fruit juice. Unless of course it is flavoured then the flavours tend to bring down the ph making it more corrosive. I actually looked it up recently myself because a few people mentioned it wasn't good for teeth andI was happy to see it was OK.

[Shdef]

You can make your own squash from oranges. It is really nice. DS now mostly drinks tea. I prepare a litre in the morning and put it in the fridge. Twining's berry tea is a favourite here. I also sees me drink tea all day, so I guess that is learning by watching. Just a tiny bit of honey in it, then he has a glass with straw and ice cubes which makes it just delicious

He has drank tea several times a day since he was 6 weeks old and has never had a cavity or even a discolouration of the teeth.

[koe2moe]

Water is very important for brain functions.  We need to sense water sometimes for the brain to register that we have a huge reserve of it as we are almost 70% water.  I would perhaps encourage her to take a small sip to moisten the mouth.  When she feels it, she might know better if she is thirsty.  Even when kids suddenly hit a dip, get them a sip of water can give them a boost. 

When it is warm, diluted juice might even be better than water as we lose a lot of minerals in sweat. 

[momma.bear]

Just following along here. Can anyone provide me a link to the NICE guideline? I'm not familiar with it as we don't have it here in Canada.

[*Ali*]

http://publications.nice.org.uk/nocturnal-enuresis-cg111/guidance#advice-on-fluid-intake-diet-and-toileting-patterns

There you go