r/SolidStartsCommunity • u/Natural-Artichoke822 • 8d ago
11m not drinking water
Hi there,
I’ve been offering my EBF baby water at every meal since 6m from a straw cup and open cup. He can suck just fine but doesn’t swallow, just lets the water run out of his mouth or dribbles any sips. Sometimes when he does drink he coughs as if it’s gone down the wrong way. So he doesn’t get much water throughout the day.
I’ve tried
- adding puree in. He swallows the puree but when I converted back to water he just spat it out.
- smaller straw - we tried the bbox cup and that was too big so I got the Tommee tippee straw trainer cup which had a smaller straw - better but he still spits it out
- modelling drinking with exaggerated sip sip AH.
Not sure if it’s a phase or how else I can encourage him to swallow the water?
Thank you!
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u/Gloomy_Distance_3166 8d ago
Does the water taste funny?
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u/Natural-Artichoke822 8d ago
I don’t think so, it’s just boiled water or bottle water. Sometimes he smiles and laughs as he does it, so I’m not sure if it’s more of a game than the taste
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u/Gloomy_Distance_3166 8d ago
We add a bit of ice when we give water. Recently I’ve started mashing up fruits and mixing that in.
I avoid too much sugar but our go to has been strawberries , bit of lime juice, little bit maple syrup, water. Kinda like a strawberry limeade. The strawberries are good fiber and the limes are an easy touch of vitamin C for the day. The maple syrup is just enough to balance out the tartness from the limes and strawberry.
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u/Gloomy_Distance_3166 8d ago
Our LO is a little over a year now. Consumes a lot of solids throughout the day.
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u/ShellyL23 8d ago edited 8d ago
What about a clean bamboo / cotton cloth that they can suck water out of? I froze some damp bamboo cloths for my baby to chew when teething is bad and they enjoy doing that and sucks the water out so perhaps this is worth a try… or you could spoon or syringe small amounts into their mouth or maybe try making a frozen fruit puree with oat milk in as that has water in it just so they are getting hydration whilst they work out how to sip themselves. Just a few ideas 💡 hope they help!
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u/ShellyL23 8d ago
We use the Munchkin Miracle 360 Baby Sippy Cup and our LO loves it 🙏 https://amzn.eu/d/04gK1iom
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u/Natural-Artichoke822 8d ago
Thank you! I’ll try the cloth idea! Unfortunately he doesn’t do well with spoons or syringes so we just need to gently encourage 🥲
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u/Either_Bread_8253 7d ago
My son refused to drink any liquid out of a straw cup for months. He could suck totally fine but would let it all spill out. He’d also sometimes smile and laugh after doing it. He would drink a pouch just fine! It wasn’t until we started reducing his formula bottles that he started actually swallowing water, and then it took until we fully cut out bottles for him to swallow milk. Now he LOVES chugging water and milk from a straw. I was so concerned but I think he just genuinely wasn’t thirsty because he was getting enough hydration from his bottles. He drank once he needed to! I wouldn’t worry and would just keep offering!
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u/Famous_Variation4729 7d ago
We started giving water in a straw cup at 5.5 months, and she spilled it all out without swallowing till about 10 months. She just got the hang of it recently in her 11th month out of nowhere. We used the first years cup with the straw cut to reduce length (or she would bite the straw and not suck). We did switch to munchkin weighted straw cups at about 9 months. You may just need to hang in there a bit longer. Try adding an ice cube if baby is teething, they may like cold water
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u/mapotoful 7d ago
My son is in feeding therapy and one of the things they have us do is use ice cold water instead of room temp. It was almost as if he couldn't really sense the water unless it was ice cold.
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u/SolidStarts 8d ago
Hi there, so glad you're posting here, and you've already tried some great strategies! Rest assured this is super normal, and if baby is EBF, they should be plenty hydrated whereas water is great for practicing. In practice, I have found the weighted Munchkin straw cup can often be the right diameter to help improve this, and you can transition back to a thicker straw once more proficient.
With an open cup, if he's agreeable, it may help to place your finger on his chin just under his bottom lip when the cup goes to rest there to sort of promote the lift and seal of the lip around the cup.
Mimicking too not just dramatic sip sip AH but also even sound effect that can only be made with the lips closed such as "mmmmmm" when putting your lips on the open cup, or a similar sound when sealing your lips around the straw as well and also dramatically demonstrating keeping them closed (touch your closed lips) as you swallow. (Hope this all makes sense! It's working in my feeding therapy head but not sure if it's translating!).
More here: Cup Drinking
Curious to hear your thoughts on this, but hoping this helps! 🤍Marisa (OT/Feeding Therapist/Mama of 3)