8 month old won't drink anything

Question

Our 8 month old baby girl has been exclusively breastfed until she started solids 2 months ago.

Now she is happily eating pureés etc, to which we sometimes add water or juice, but she refuses all other liquids other than by nursing.

Just wondering if anyone out there has had a similar experience in the past?

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Things we have tried:

• Expressed breastmilk
• 4 varieties of formula
• Water
• Juice
• Bottles of different sizes/shapes
• 4 different shapes of nipple, with 3 different flow rates
• Sippy cups with soft spouts
• Sippy cups with hard spouts
• Room temperature, slightly warmed, body temperature, and cold from the fridge drinks.
• Drinks offered by Mom, Dad, Aunts, Grandparents, etc.

No combination of the above has worked.

Our baby has no medical issues that we know of. Her mouth is perfectly normal, she is teething but the bottle refusal thing started before the teething.

This is a concern for us because, now that nursing has been reduced, we're not sure that she's getting enough liquids. Plus, baby can't be apart from her mother for more than a few hours for fear of dehydration. This spells trouble as mom is due back to work soon.

Note: When she was 3 months old, our baby was apart from her mother for 24 hours (mom had surgery). During that time she flatly refused all attempts to bottle feed her, effectively going on hunger strike. I feel that this experience might have stuck with her.

Answer 1

Signs of dehydration include:

1) sunken fontanelle

2) dark urine / less than six wet nappies in 24 hours

3) dry sometimes sticky lips

If you're worried about dehydration you might want to speak to a doctor or health visitor.

Your baby is probably getting enough fluid from breastmilk.

For the first year the baby will have either breast milk or infant formula. After one year you will want to make water or full fat cows milk available. It's best to start using a normal cup as soon as the child can handle it. You might find a free-flow spout helps. Avoid "sippy" or "valved" cups -- these can cause hearing problems. Fruit juices have way too much sugar and should be heavily diluted. One part juice to tend parts water is the current recommendation in the UK, and that's only for children who refuse to drink water or milk.

As a rule of thumb the child should be off bottles by the age of 12 months. This is to avoid the teat disrupting tooth development. It is only a rough rule of thumb though!

Let the child see the liquid, and let them play with it and explore it. Imagine it was you and someone gave you a strange food to eat - you'd poke it a bit, and smell it, twist it around and so on.

Model good behaviour. Make sure you all have drinks in similar cups and frequently drink from them.

Copiously reward good behaviour. When the child touches the cup say "Yes! That's your cup!" And when she touches the drink say "Yes! That's your water!"

Feeding and drinking is something that is considerably stressful for parents! Please do remember that your child is probably fine; is probably getting everything from the food and nursing you provide; and that this is a short term thing that will probably clear within a few months. Just make sure drinks are always available and that the child knows the drink is there and they'll move over when they're ready. You say that Mother is returning to work soon - this problem will likely resolve itself then, as a source of hydration is removed the child will seek out replacements.

Here's the current UK recommendations: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/drinks-and-cups-children.aspx

Answer 2

Have you tried decreasing the association between the breast and drinking liquid by giving her skin-to-skin cuddling time that doesn't involve beast-feeding? You or your wife could hold her in the crook of your (shirtless) arm while you turn the pages of a baby book or walk "tickle fingers" across her tummy, perhaps. Also see if she'll accept a cup or bottle from someone this way.