How to make your toddler drink water and fluids

A perennial challenge for parents the world over. Here’s how we have dealt with it these last 3 years. Always have water ready and handy so you can strike whilst the iron is hot. If it’s juice they like, go ahead, have your diluted juice ready. Whatever it takes, as long as your bubs are hydrated. I know for sure my willful bub is allergic to water!

1. Feed them water when they are busy playing. Deep in concentration during play, toddlers usually don’t want to be disturbed during their playtime and will drink quickly without complaints so that you get the hell out of their face.
2. Play ‘yam seng’ (cheers!) games where you have a team of teddy bears all with their drinks and all of you toast loudly to the toddler’s success in *fill in the blanks/whatever*
3. Use a syringe and play Doctor. Keep loading your syringe with water and pretend your toddler is the patient. Shoot into their mouth and come up with different ‘medicines’ for various ailments. You can also ask them to feel the different drips that it enters their mouth, shoot slow, shoot fast and let them experience the difference. Let them do it themselves!
4. Have a drinking race – this will only work if your toddler has a competitive streak to win.
5. Teach your toddler about measurement. Draw lines on the cup or show her the lines on a ready made cup with measurements and explain how measurement of milliliters work. Tell your toddler what happens when she drinks and the water hits 50ml, then what happens when it hits 20ml and what happens when it hits rock bottom. Make it up if you have to.
6. Turn water into a character. Pretend that her water comes to life and is very sad because he would really like to meet his friends inside her tummy playground. She could helpher water friend have fun if she drank him so he can be inside her tummy playground……
7. Tell her that she needs to drink in order to wash down her food, or it would get stuck and she would get a stomach ache
8. Bribe her – think of something really fun to do that you know she’d want to do. Then tell her that in order to do it, she’d first have to finish the water that you give her.
9. Add watery foods into her diet like porridge, fruit, pop icicles, ice-cubes (better still, shaped and coloured ice-cubes!), ice-cream etc
10. Change the taste of water. Add 2 drops of lemon and tell her it’s Vitamin C water and it will make her super smart and super healthy and super strong and then she can run or grow faster than anyone else in class.

The bottom line is, toddlers just want to have fun. All that’s on their minds is play, play and more play. Then kisses and hugs at bedtime. That’s their life. Drinking water and going to wee is a bloody waste of time to them thus we, as parents need to somehow weave drinking into their busy schedule of play. According to Babycenter, toddlers between one to three need 1.3 liters a day. Yes! I was shocked when Tee contracted salmonella and the Doctor said that I had to feed her at very minimum 900ml a day or he would keep her in hospital and hydrate her through the drip.

Well, good luck Mommies and Daddies!!!