My four year old says water tastes yucky and won't drink it without a lot of cajoling. Does anyone have a suggestion how to encourage more water drinking or make the water taste better without adding sugar? She says the water is icky no matter the water source: tap, store brand, various name brands, water fountain. Constipation is an issue and we need to get her drinking more! I do give her juice with breakfast and juice pops for dessert to keep her hydrated, but her preference would be drinkable yogurt or milk (regular or flavored) to anything else. Needless to say, her preferences do not help the constipation issue.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Thank you for all the suggestions! I will try a few and hope for the best. We are already working on the fiber issues (thanks for the suggestions, still), but now I have lots of water ideas to try. Her doctor suggested that she drink 8 oz for every year of age- and that is a lot of water for someone who claims to hate it!
For those who say set it down and walk away and similar hard-line advice, I understand where you are coming from, though it doesn't work for me. If I set it down and walk away she will not drink it. She has gone to bed a couple times without dinner because of the refusal to drink her water before she could eat. I didn't see how that was benefiting anyone, so I am looking for ways to make the water more appealing.
Thanks again for the awesome ideas!
When I was a teacher, a little boy brought in a water bottle every day (a disposable one, that his mom refilled) - and she just put a drop of food coloring in it. He was always excited to see what color it would be when he opened his lunch box, and even the other kids in the class "got into it", when he opened his lunch, saying "i bet it is green today, etc". Just being colored made him think it was more fun, and tasted better.
Have you tried putting a little lemon in it? I don't know if it will work for a child, but I don't really like the taste of plain water either and a little lemon squeezed in it makes it better for me.
To me, the water in CA is undrinkable, it's really that bad. Boston's water is a close second in the ick factor. I'm always relieved when I get back to CO....the water tastes so much cleaner here, but then again, if it's good enough for Coors, it's good enough for me :)
Get a really good filter and keep a cool, filtered pitcher of it in the fridge. Add lemon/lime slices as has been suggested. I wouldn't use most of the drink mixes, because it doesn't help the flavor of the water, it just puts a sugary/nutrasweet coating on it. Cut out the juice until she gets the hint. GL!
I'm a super-taster, and water makes me *gag*. As in literally throw up. Disgusting stuff. I've had occasion to have actual good tasting water (water tastes different all over the country, and even within certain cities -pipes are replaced never all at the same time-, and even certain days -most flouride is still added manually), but those occasions are rare. Usually mountain well water with older pipes but not so old they're breaking down.
My son inherited the taster business from me, although he's not quite as sensitive to water, he very rarely will drink it. Instead he drinks about 1/2 gallon of milk every day in addition to OJ.
From experience, grape hides water flavor *way* better than apple, but orange hides it the best. Since he's still a kid and growing, however, 95% of what he drinks every day is milk.
I recently quit drinking soda and now drink only water or tea with no sugar. I also wanted to get my girls to drink more water. Here are some things I did and now my girls are mostly water drinkers!
-Make sure she sees you drinking LOTS of water.
-Add a lemon Slice (girls like anything pretty!)
-Add some mint to the water.
-Make ice cubes out of juice and add one to her cup.
-Buy her some crazy straws or cups with straws attatched (again with girls presentation is everything!)
-Make it a habbit to only offer water (milk for breakfast, juice for lunch, water any other time)
-Buy tiny size bottled waters and put them in the fridge where she can get them herself (I just reuse the bottles)
-buy her a special water bottle to take everywhere (my girls love the kids camelbacks, they sell them at target)
Good luck!
My son loves Talking Rain sparkling water! It has various fruit flavors with no added sugar or anything artificial. It has bubbles that seem to make it more fun, too! I also give my kids half water, half 100% juice once a day or less often, depending on how much or little water they drink each day. My kids are camels sometimes, though, since they seem to drink so little! For constipation, see if you can give her a half or quarter chewable tablet of Acidophilus. It will give her body good bacteria and may help her go to the bathroom more often. It works for my family! Good luck to you!
My kids LOVE Pelligrino...something about the fizzy bubbles, it comes in orange (YUM) now too? Might be worth a try...or even the flavored (lemon/lime) Perrier w/ a slice of orange?
How about freezing juice in ice cube trays and letting her put a few flavored ice cubes in her glass of water? Or even frozen grapes, my kids also love doing this...especially if you let them help "make it"!
I suggest getting here some nice herbal teas. I love Teavana! check them out online. Look at herbal teas and roobios teas. Both options are caffeine free, flavorful, and healthy.
Hi, I don't drink plain water either. I drink very diluted juice or tea or sometimes diluted milk if I don't have the first two in the fridge.
Dilute the juice or add lots of ice.. it all counts as water..
My kids only drink milk and water, no juice. Recently I wanted to think of a way to spice up the water in the way that you are thinking. I just take a pitcher of water and add a few lemon and lime slices (about a whole lemon and a half a lime). It tastes so good! The fruit keeps its flavor for so long that I can even refill the pitcher a few times using the same slices! My kids love the look of it and they think they are fancy because they know in restaurants they always ask the adults if they want lemon in their water. It has worked wonders for us! Good luck!
I have to drink a lot of water everyday for medical reasons. I have learned to hate te taste of plain water in my mouth. So I have done a cople of things I hope it may help. 1. I freeze a 1/2 filled water bottle and then add water to that becasue it changes the taste the colder the better for me,2. I will add just enough koolaid or soda to flavor the water I am talking just a little, or I add fresh fruit or berries and that adds a great flavor , and then there are great flavored waters that taste great. Milk will only add to the constipation issue so be careful. If the goal is to get her to drink more water than you may have to do it with something like kool-aid becasue most children will be happy to drink lots of it and its not like a soda. We found for my grandchildren to get them to drink more water we bought the small bottles that work best in thier small hands and with the pop top and they will even let me refill that same bottle they like it so much. You can also make great smoothie drinkd with a blender and using lots of vegetables or fruit with water as the base our children seem to like that. Good Luck
My grandson definitely likes the taste of the filtered water I carry from home better than the tap or filtered water he he gets at his home in Portland, which is a city blessed with uncommonly good drinking water. However, it still needs to pass through a delivery system, and picks up detectable flavors along the way.
Since water is so incredibly important to health, you might consider getting a good water filter. I use a triple-filter system that incorporates reverse osmosis and charcoal for sweetening the final product, then I store it in glass. I've had the same filter for nearly 20 years now, and replace the filters every couple of years. (Some water sources might require more regular changes).
I also have a "drinking race" with my grandson every day that I'm there, which gets an enthusiastic 6-8 ounces into him. But he's not a thirsty guy, and it is hard to get regular water into him, and he can be prone to constipation.
Whole fresh fruit is actually not a bad way to get additional hydration into any body, and it's much healthier than fruit juice, which contains a pretty concentrated whap of sugar. Plus it's got added fiber and lots of antioxidants. When my grandson gets fruit juice, it's always cut about 50% with water. He thinks that's the way it's supposed to taste.
I would dilute it with a little juice or lemon. You can also get a water filter at your sink. That is what we do and it makes our water taste AWESOME!
Stop giving her a choice. Yes milk will constipate her more, most juices are not healthy and make kids hyper. DO NOT give them C. Light or Propel as other posters have mentioned. They have aspertame and other fake sugars that are BAD for children. Tea - even caffeine free - will constipate her too. YES to more fruits and veggies, 3/4 of all our food intake should be fruits or veggies, we Americans never seem to remember that.
I would make her meals with mostly fruits and veggies, offer her only fruits and veggies as a snack. Remember kids should only have 4 ounces yogurt a day, 4 ounces juice a day, 4 ounces of protein per meal, and 1 piece of cheese per day. The rest is fresh stuff. Only giver her water to drink adn she will get used to it, try ice and limes and lemons, straws, bottles, new sippy cups. She'll drink it if it's her only choice.
AND REMEMBER once you start drinking water and nothing else, your body will CRAVE water! So give her a few days or couple weeks and it will be much better. And maybe try every brand bottled water to see which one she likes best, even take her to the store and let her pick, and even "help" you remember what ones she's tried.
Good luck, stick to your decision whatever you decide!
Give her diluted juice (3/4 C. water, 1/4 C. juice). I buy V-Fusion lite - it is healthy and has fruit and veggies). I always dilute my kids' juice and they don't mind. My 3 and 2 year olds see me adding water to their juice and they always ask for "juice water." However, I wouldn't let your daughter see you diluting her juice! Good luck.
I got my boys 3 and 5 each a Bobble water bottle and they have been drinking ever since. http://letsgogreen.biz/pages/bottles/bobble.html.
I was surprised by how easily they took to it. They drink a ton more water since I got the bottles.
My 4 yr old loves the sugar free Hawaiian Punch singles to go. They come in several different flavors. At wal-mart you get a pack of 8 for $1. 5 calories per serving
My daughter goes to a health food store and buys Stevia ( http://www.stevia.com/ ) in several different flavors and lets her son pick what flavor he wants his water to be. His particular favorite is grape and root beer...it comes in a dozen or more different flavors. You only use a drop or two in a large glass of water...a little goes a long ways. It is a natural, sugar free sweetner that can be used in tons of things.
Crystal Light. No sugar but it's sweet. Also, switch to soy milk (not binding) and give it to her watered down with water. If you start giving it to her automatically watered down she will assume that that's the way it's supposed to taste. You can get it in flavors so you can ease her into it by slowly adjusting the ratio of regular soy milk to flavored soy milk.
Make it colder by adding ice. Don't give her any other option than water. This sounds like a battle of the wills and hers is winning right now.
UPDATE-
Yes, setting the water down and walking away is hard, but don't refuse her food for not drinking it. Offer her milk in the AM with breakfast and after that it's water only. And I just thought of this, but how often does the rest of your family drink water??? If she sees you drinking it all the time might she be more reasonable to drink it too?
Capri Sun makes a flavored water that comes in a pouch just like their regualr juices. It is called: Raging Waters. It is very very low in calories and sugar. My son is 10 now but we gave up juices years ago. The other thing he loves to drink is sparkling water that you can get at Safeway, Target, Walmart etc. They come in many different flavors and are zero in both calories and sugar.
haven't read all the other suggestions but a few I can think of:
- add a wedge of lemon
- add a few frozen mixed berries (this has the added advantage of turning the water a pretty pink or purplish color :-))
You put it down & walk away!! that's it.. end of story, no if's and's or but's. Your the parent & obviously that's what she needs.. so you can't always be the friend you have to be the parent. My mom always told me i was put here to take care of me not to win a publicity contest! so do what you have to do mama!
You could try:
Propel flavored waters (or other flavored waters with no sugar)
Crystal Light drink mix
Decaf unsweet tea (or even make it with Splenda or Truvia)
I hate water too, but unfortunately all I like is really sweet tea! :)
I add a little crystal light to the water. My kids like the strawberry/orange/banana flavor and it is a light pink. The package calls to make it in a 2 quart container but I make it in a gallon to dilute it, then put ice in their cups to dilute it a bit more. Crystal light has NO SUGAR. My 4 year old daughter gets cavities easily so she is not allowed to have any drink with sugar in it and she also had constipation issues so I was always giving her apple juice. We no longer even buy apple juice as she drinks so much "juice" which is very lightly flavored water that she no longer has problems. We never call what they are drinking flavored water we call it juice.
Hope this helps. You can find Crystal Light at most grocery stores in the aisle with the soda near the water.
Hi M.---I agree with diluted juice, at first, and no milk. Milk is constipating and highly allergenic, being one of the biggest risks for developing type1 diabetes. Please go to www.pcrm.org, www.strongbones.org and www.notmilk.com to learn why cows milk is for cows and not for humans.
For the constipation issue, please offer her fiber rich foods. These would most likely be lots of fruits and veggies, which have lots of water in them. I work with a Naturopath who has her PhD in Nutrition and I have lots of info from her that I would be happy to share with you. I would also recommend going to www.askDrSears.com. I know they have advice on MANY subjects and an area where you can ask questions as well. The senior Dr. Sears has written over 30 books on child care. I highly recommend the Family Nutrition book and The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood.
I also recommend looking into a high quality whole food based supplement. I have the pleasure and honor of working with the same company that Dr. Sears works with. The supplement we both use contains the juiced and dehydrated food powders of 15 different fruits and veggies and the bran of 2 grains. It comes in gummies and has enough fiber in it to help things in the digestive system move, if you know what I mean.
Make a game out of drinking water. Maybe have her drink at least 4oz of water before she can drink anything else. I might even try offering her Fiji or Evian waters. These have a nice balance of minerals in them and do taste totally different than other bottled waters on the market. Yes, more expenseive but healthier as well. At 4, your daughter should be able to know the difference between simply not liking something and not liking something but drinking it anyway. Tell her that sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do, especially when it is something that is good for us. But, appeal to her vanities. Does she want to be a ballerina? A model? A star soccer player? Tell her that lots of water is necessary to achieve these goals. I might also go get some books at the library that talk about the importance of consuming adequate amounts of water.
You are the mom and have to be strong. We have to teach our kids what they need to know, and drinking water is one of the most important things that we can do in order to achieve optimal health. I have tons of resources to share so feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions. Good luck, be well. D.
Hi there, Be careful with your choices, read the labels! There is so much junk out there, it's sad what it can do to a body. I would put out some pieces of lemon, berries, etc and let her make it herself, then she will want to drink it more. Also, where is your water coming from? Do you need a new filter or switch to a different store to fill the big bottle if that's what you do. What does it taste like to you? If she has a part in it, I'm sure it will help. You can even make a specail trip to the store or farmers market just for her water things and let her go and help pick the produce out with you. That would be special. And while your there maybe let her try an Odwalla, they are good and healthy, kinda expensive but worth it. Helps the constipation issue. Good Luck
I second the advice about giving diluted juice. Try curly straws.
Also, I think water tastes much better from metal water bottles as opposed to plastic. If you're up for the investment, you could get her a fancy stainless water bottle.
I have gotten many children to drink pi water. It tastes great.The body absorbs it on a cellular level and helps with flushing out toxins. It turns your tap water into the best drinking water.
Good luck.
N. Marie
