8 month old needs more fluids but refuses bottles. What else could I try?

[Twink]

My daughter is nearly 8 months old and breastfed in combination with a few meals every days (baby jars/ baby porridge/ rusks/ fruit). As she is eating more and more she is getting quite constipated and where she would usually sleep through the night she is now waking up once or twice struggling with flatulence. She has a tiny poop every 2-3 days and then a massive one maybe once a week.

I'm trying to give her more fluids, but she's always hated bottles. I've tried regular bottles and sippy cups. Even different flavours to try and get her interested. She won't even take breast milk from a bottle and I'm all out of ideas.

Has anyone else gone through the same thing? What else can I try?

Thanks

[NanKing]

Been through the same thing with baby no.1. with the bottles but we managed to get her to take a cup. She was soley breastfed too (and you have to congratulate yourself on how good it must be!) At first (at a bout 4/5 ms) drinking from a sippy without the lid got her going on taking water and we added the lid later when she started to handle it herself. Maybe offering her a cup which looks like yours (or is yours) at a family meal time might cut it? My youngest hates being a baby and wants to do everything the rest of us are doing - down to serving his own spaghetti! Might be a bit of a last resort but when mine have been poorly we have syringed water into them with one of those 5ml syringes you get with calpol etc - not really a long term solution though! Otherwise if she will eat lots of juicy fruit like pears, melon etc then that counts for something. My guess is that if you pick one approach - (and I would personally go with a cup as Breastfed babies tend to like them better than something pretending to be a nipple) and stick to it she will slowly accept it - the phases of refusing various things do seem to pass but some take longer than others to wear down. Our (big) baby is currently refusing: baths, bibs and bread of any kind, in a couple of months we will have moved on to 'C' I guess!

[muma6]

I don't know if this will help but my daughter was the same and the only way I found was ice lollys. Then once used to that melt one into a bottle and she should recognise the flavour and come around to bottles that way. It can also sometimes be that the holes on the bottle aren't big enough for her. I had to make them bigger for my daughter.

[dons88]

I'll second the 'proper' cup idea. I started offering my son sips of water from an open cup when he was about 6 months and he drank really well, he could use a proper cup unaided before he was 1 which was a bonus too.

Totally feel your pain about refusing a bottle too, my 16-week old is still having none of it. I love breast feeding but it would be nice to offer an expressed one from time to time! X

[BubbaG in reply to dons88]

I'm in the same boat as you, My LO is 16 weeks and EBF. As much as I love it and am glad I would love for her to have some expressed milk in a bottle but she wont touch a bottle, I have tried Water and Breast milk and she looks horrified.Think I might try a cup next month lol xx

[Hidden in reply to BubbaG]

There is a tommee tippee beaker suitable for 4 months plus I got it for my son as hes not a bottle fan x

[CarolineDarz]

I got a doidy cup, which is slanted and really good they dont have to tip it as much. X just found it on deal amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000RB...

[MadamAdams]

Ice lollies made from fruit juice (try and get the best you can and avoid anything that's made from concentrate as these generally have a lot of added sugar) and fruit that has a high water content - watermelon, apples, pears oranges, dragon fruit etc.

Watch the amount of cereal she's having and try to increase fruit and veg intake - this can help speed up her digestion and will prevent constipation which too much cereal can cause. Maybe look into baby led weaning if you haven't already, its much easier than purees and a lot less messy. It also puts the food into your baby's control so they can chose what to eat and when. Steamed broccoli (leave the stalk on so baby has something to grip), carrot sticks and sweet potato are brilliant for BLW

Hope this has helped

[Merida]

I was advised to give juice through fruit, like oranges as my wee one isn't taking enough from his sippy cup. Fynn tends to drink a bit more if it's warm.

The doctor also advised to avoid bananas which seemed to have helped. But sometimes still gets constipated with no obvious reason, the health visitor said it might just be from teething.