Water is essential and the human body can’t do without it. Despite its importance, children can sometimes refuse to drink water as they probably won’t know of its importance. As a parent, the challenge becomes how to get your child to drink water. This problem is most common with toddlers, especially when they are accustomed to other liquids or cereals. Like with everything else in a child’s life, if allowed, it can grow into a dangerous habit. When your Child Won’t Drink Water? Thankfully, you have alternate methods you can employ to make your child drink water and stop hating it. Some methods you can use to make your kid drink water include:
Filter the water
When your child is refusing to drink water, it could be an indication that something is wrong with the water, especially if the habit is a recent development. If the water has a funny taste or has particles, the child won’t be inclined to drink it. Filtering the water will help it be tasteless as water is meant to be, allowing your kid to drink it. There is the added benefit of the water becoming more healthy and safer for the child. Install a reverse osmosis system to filter the water before it reaches the outlet where your child drinks from.
Remove all other liquids
One reason why the child may be refusing to drink water is that they may have other alternative liquids that they prefer. Once they have drunk these liquids, it can be quite filling, and they won’t want to drink water afterward. The absence of other liquid alternatives, especially sweet liquids will prompt them to drink water. When the child is thirsty and can’t find anything else to drink, they will have to drink water. Best of all, this doesn’t have to be a long-term thing, as you can simply reintroduce other liquids into the home once the child has grown accustomed to drinking water.
Make a water drinking schedule
As with all other things, you can train your child to drink water and it all starts with a schedule. By scheduling drinking times, your child will become familiar with drinking water even if they don’t like it. The more frequently they drink, the more accustomed to it they get until it becomes like a reflex. After a while, it will become a part of them and they may even stick with the schedule long into adulthood. To have a greater chance of success, it is important to start the schedule early in the morning. Just as your child may not like to brush in early infancy but get accustomed to it, so too they will with drinking water.
Use colorful cups and bottles
Simply changing the packaging of water can make it more appealing to your child, prompting them to drink water. You can get colored cups and bottles and fill them with water for your child. Once they are attracted to the bottle, they will like to drink whatever is in it. Alternatively, you can get a bottle of your child’s favorite drink, or something similar, and fill it with water. When they feel it is something they want to drink, then they would be inclined to drink it.
Add in some flavor
Children like sweet things and will drink them even without being told to. By adding flavor into the water, your child will likely drink it without any problems. Just as with a cucumber adding flavor to the water served to you at a restaurant, different fruits can flavor your child’s water. Slices of frozen fruit work best for this purpose and will melt into the water, allowing your child to consume it in the process. By using your child’s favorite fruit, water will become more appealing to them and they won’t have any problem drinking it.
Conclusion
While your child may not like to drink water, it is something you can fix with a little creativity and trickery. You will also need to ensure that the water quality is excellent, preventing any health concerns or side effects in your children. Once you are able to get your child comfortable with drinking water, the habit will likely continue for a long time.
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