10th Month Old BF Baby Won't Take Any Water/Liquids - Any Advice?

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diylim

Registered User
I am still breastfeeding my 10th month old girl in addition to 3 meals a day plus 1 mid-pm snack. I plan to wean her when she turns 1 but I am having a hard time getting her to drink any water/liquids during and in between her meals. She would eat around 1/2 cup of thick congee or roots veges with meat for lunch/dinner but would refuse to drink any liquids after her meal. I have tried water, juices, soups and have plenty of sippy cups/straws but to no avail. She used to take 1-2 sips of water via the straw but has stopped doing this for a week now. Any advice please?

I am still BF her 4-6 times per 24 hours but wanted to drop 1 feed at a time as soon as she takes in more liquids.
 
maybe she is not used to using straws to sip, it can be a bit too tiring for her. You can try using a milk bottle as she is used to getting liquid from your nipple.
 
diylim, i could have written your post, as I'm having the same issue with my 11 month old. I've tried straw cups, but even though she's really good at sucking the water up the straw she's not so good at swallowing it and water goes everywhere (my first got the hang of straw cups at about 12-13 months). I've tried all manner of spouted cups to no avail (hand-me-downs from my first who also didn't take to them). What I've found works is to use a small bowl (the Ikea childrens bowls work well) and put that to her mouth - she's then able to sip quite a bit from that. Beakers are not so good at this stage, I've found, as they are too narrow at the top. I'm not going to resort to a milk bottle for water, as I don't want to have to "wean" her from that, too.
 
I would not be too concerned if she is still breastfeeding well and eating. Just keep offering, maybe try different types of sippy cups or the ones with the teat and handles to start with.

I don't recall giving/offering my kids a drink after their meals at 10m I think it wasn't until I stopped b/f that I gave them more sippy cups (than just the odd play thing).
 
I'd skip teh bottle idea at this point, if baby does get used to it, then you will just have to wean from it soon anyways. I found with my babies (they were BF and never took a bottle) they never really caught on how to drink from a sippy cup. pulling the liquid through the valve is very different than BF. I went straight to a cup, and used it at meals. MOstly they played with it and dumped it out and sometimes tried drinking from it.They really didn't start drinking any amount from it until about age 1 when placed in dayhome and I went back to work. for the first 2-3 weeks, they hardly drank anything at all to the point the day home lady thought they were dehydrated (which of course they were not becasue they Bf several times at night/evening/morning before they went there). Eventually they catch on to drinking from a cup. Good luck!
 
Same here. My daughter is 10 months old and for a couple of months I tried to find different beakers that would work for her to take water. I then started giving her water from one of her bowls and she took it so I went on to giving her a cup and she drinks from that. I give it to her everyday and she is getting better and better at drinking from it. I BF as well and totally agree that there is no point in introducing the bottle at this stage although, by god, it would have made life easier! Still, no regrets!!!
 
Thank you mommies for your responses. My girl started refusing bottles of EBM at 6 months (she used to take them before that). I did try giving her a cup but didn't persist on it. I guess I should just keep on trying and see how it goes.

Putput - what brand of cup did you get? I am interested to try that too and hopefully it will work.
 
I just thought that I would add that my daughter was formula fed upto 12 months, from a milk bottle (avent) but still would not take any other fluids (water, juice) even though I continued to offer them to her for months. I tried different water bottles but she just didn't seem to get it. Once she turned 12 months though, we dropped the daytime milk feed, and her food intake significantly increased, and I offered her a tommy tippee sipper cup (it has a straw and flip over top) which took her a week or two to understand, but once she got the hang of it, she now drinks around 2 cups of water or more in a day, plus her two milk feeds (morning and night). It may have been the new cup, or her being old enough to understand the cup, but I honestly think it was dropping the middle of the day milk feed that worked.
I guess I am just trying to say that it is not uncommon for them to reject water and other fluids at this stage, they will get there. The benefit you have is your still breast feeding, so providing your fluid intake is adequate, your baby should still be getting sufficient nutrients through you. Best of luck!
 
I did the same as Mummyof 2 - went straight to a regular cup and it worked well with my first. Doing the same with my second (9 months) now. He too is totally bf. I started giving him the cup a few weeks ago. At first he did nothing but play with it and get water everywhere. Now he's getting the hang of it and will drink a bit before I offer him his after meal bf.
Good luck!
 
Hi diylim,

It's the trainer cup from mothercare. It's pink and green and has 3 stages (cup etc) - I put her straight on the cup stage and my daughter drinks water and juices from it. It took her a week or so to get the hang of it.

Best of luck!
 
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