juice/squash

shazzy81 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-09-10, 21:47

Hi

Ive got a nearly 8 month old daughter, who is weaning well and loves all the foods that i give her. She has now started to refuse her teatime bottle of milk, so i need to increase her fluid intake so shes doesnt get dehydrated. She will still have between 510-540mls of milk per day.

She will sip water but isnt much of a fan. Ive bought the boots baby spring water with a hint of fruit but it seems to have a strange taste. Ive also got her the heinz bottles which she seems to like.

What juice/squash do you give your little ones? Do you mix your own and if you do what proportions do you use etc? Its just going to work out rather expensive to keep buying the ready made drinks-not that we mind but it seems a bit of a waste.

Thanks

DrP · #2 (**permalink**) 02-09-10, 22:45

My LO has always had mostly water. I rarely give him anything else. When I do, which is once or twice a week at most, and never more than one cup, it's a small amount of either fresh fruit juice or some innocent smoothie diluted with lots of water.

I often throw a couple of slices of cucumber in a glass of water for myself, which gives it a nice hint of flavour. He has always liked that too and gets it the odd time that I'm having some and he wants it too.

DrP · #3 (**permalink**) 03-09-10, 08:22

Also should have said that it's well worth sticking with the water and trying to get your LO to drink that rather than juice or something sweet, as it really is so much better than anything else.

One problem with juice is that because the like it so much they can tend to drink too much of it which has the negative effect of causing them to cut back on their formula and solids as it fill them up.

If she will even sip at water then it's a good start. I'd make sure to always leave some sort of cup sitting around for her to play with and get used to so she always have some in reach and can have it when she wants. There are all sorts of non-spill cups out there for LOs.

If you cannot get her to take water at all then use very diluted juice and gradually reduce the amount of juice you use and try and get her to take water that way.

If she is cutting out a feed she probably doesn't need it any more, but I very much doubt she will become dehydrated if she isn't drinking something as a substitute. At that age milk is still the main food source so I would take her cutting out a feed as probably an indication that she doesn't need it for that reason.

jewel · #4 (**permalink**) 03-09-10, 08:37

I agree with DrP - try and stay away from the juices as much as possible and have as an occassional treat.

If you offer water she will drink it if she's thirsty. If you must insist on juice I would use fresh juice watered down (my 2yr old has 1/3 juice 2/3 water) so for your baby i'd say 1/4 juice. In order to get her used to water u could try reducing the concentration so the juice is non existant?

Good luck. Remember it's very unlikely yr lo will go thirsty. There are fluids in a lot of the food and fruit she will be eating as well as her milk. When I was concerned about the amount of fluids my eldest baby was drinking I used to give a clean wet flanel which she used to suck on!

T x