How to Get My 11 Month Old to Drink Water

My son loved to drink out of the bottle of water at that age, like mom and dad. At first he spilled quite a bit, but it only took a few tries for him to get the hang of it. He doesn't drink alot of water, but will take a few sips a few times a day.

Does she know what a sippy cup is for? It might seem like a strange question but she may not know how to use one. She may not know she has to suck on it, or how to (different than a bottle). When our kids were babies, we gave them a sippy cup with water with their meals at the table starting around 5 months old. For the first few weeks, we kept the plastic valve out so the water would drip out freely. They learned how to suck on it and got instant reward because it didn't take any work to get the water. Once they got the hang of it, we put the valves back in and they were fine. They would also play with the sippy cup... like they play with everything to learn about it.

You might want to try different cups, too. The only ones my kids liked are the Playtex ones. And they are the most leakproof ones I've seen without a bunch of weird parts. My kids also started to prefer the straw cups around 11-12 months old instead of the sippy cups.

You said she doesn't like the bottle... but you should still give her formula or start the transition to milk because that is still very important for them. Just put the formula in a sippy cup or straw cup since she doesn't like the bottle. Keep offering the sippy/straw cups and eventually she'll get the hang of it.

Some babies aren't drinkers--I've learned. I'm not adoctor; I've just learned this with my own children. Caleb, my second, will only drink warm liquids. At 11 months, I switched him to warm, whole milk and he loves it. 11 months is a little sooner than recommended for switching to whole milk, but he was healthy and weighed plenty and I had to stop breast feeding for other reasons. Also, you may want to try warm water--Caleb loves bath water and drinks it whether I want him to or not :) And you might try Nuby sippy cups. They simulate bottle nipples and are easy to transition into harder-nippled sippy cups. Nuby products are found at Target and Wla-Mart Hope this helps.

I've not had this problem, but maybe if she seems to want to eat like you (like a big girl?), then maybe letting her use a straw (and maybe even you do too?)...

My daughter didn't like the regular hard spout sippies. I tried the Nuby soft spout and the straw spout. She prefers the straw, and doesn't have to lean way back in the high chair to drink from it.

She still bangs it around though. When she's deliberately banging it to get the liquid to come out, I take it away and set it in front of her. After a few minutes I give it back and she's pretty good.

We are working on getting rid of the bottle during the day... she's my last baby, so I'm taking my time. =)

Drink from her sippy and make a big deal about how good it is. You may have to hold it for her too. My dd loves to throw her sippy and bang it on her highchair. If I hold it for her, she'll drink from it.

You need to ditch the bottle before you worry about the water. If she is big enough to bang it on the table she is big enough to start controlling the motor skills to drink. try a no dip from playtex with a hard top (soft ones can be chewed off and choke a child)Would not hurt for mom to use a sippy to start with. You can share that is always neat for kids to share with mommy and with a no drip you don't have to worry about back wash, lol. Then give her on of her own after a few meals and judge where to go from there if she accepts it or not. You might even try a bottle Mommy of course with a nasty taste look on your face and then try a sippy with a smile. Children learn and mimic our actions. Once you have the game going slide in some watered down juice and then straight water. Its great if you can get the whole family doing this kids don't like to be left out. WHAT EVER IT TAKES!!! That is our mommy jobs. Good Luck.

Try a few different sippies. My son still doesn't really like the regular tippy cups, so we got him the nubby cups with straws.
Also, he liked to drink what I was drinking, so I would use a straw in my water. Put the straw in, put your finger over the top to hold the water, and offer the other end to her. She'll think it's fun and once she gets used to it, she'll probably like it.
Meanwhile, feed her lots of high-water-content things like fruits. As long as she continues to poop ok and has wet diapers, don't worry too much about how much she's drinking unless she shows signs of dehydration.

My 9 month old son had the same problem a few months ago -- and it was a problem because he was constipated. We tried over and over to get him to drink water and juice, and he would have none of it. Then one day he saw me drinking water from a glass and looked really interested in it, so I gave him a little from the glass I was drinking. He actually did a really good job drinking it. Then I bought him a cup of his own and started giving him water from that. Then we tried the sippy cup, and he figured that out as well. (but we had to show him how it works by drinking from it ourselves) Now he LOVES his water. My point is, if she sees you drinking it, she will eventually want some as well. Also, you may want to try taking the rubber stopper out of the top of the sippy cup. With it in, your daughter will have to suck really hard to get anything out, which may be discouraging her.

Yes, Yes, Yes, give her the sippy! That is how kids learn is by exploring. She wants to know what sounds it can make, what kind of mess she might create, and what its function is. Keep giving it to her. She'll get the hang of it on her own. My son used the Playtex sippy cup. It has a softer spout and 2 handles. He does very well with it. For the water, my doctor had me adding 2 tsp. of Karo syrup to it for a bit for constipation. I gradually cut down the syrup and he drinks water fine now. Something else you might try to push the water is get yourself a glass. She will want it because it is yours. Let her have some out of your glass. She will feel like a big girl and you get some water in her. Win Win Good Luck. Shannon

Not sure if you already do this, but if she sees YOU drinking alot of water she'll want some of it ; )

Put a little kero syrup in it. It might help. Also I would just keep giving her the sippy cups, eventuly she'll try to drink from it. I did this with my son to get him to drink water & from sippy cups. Also slowly removing the bottles from her sight will help her get used to cups.

I buy the flavored waters for myself, and my daughter ends up drinking most of them. She loves them. So, I don't stop her cause she is not a milk drinker either.

The best way to get them to drink water, eat vegetables, etc. is to model the behavior. They see you do it, and they want to do it too, and you don't have to push them into it. I don't mean in a fake way, "Look what Mommy is doing!!" but just let them observe you doing the things you want them to do, and the behavior modeling process begins. I saw Jessica Seinfeld's theory of puree-ing vegetables into their diet, but I've never had any problems getting mine to eat heaping piles of vegetables & ask for more. I think that's because they see me do it all the time. =)

Hello. Have you tried the Nuby (sp?) sippy cups? they have a soft mouth piece that is a little more bottle nipple like. you could give her a little formula in a sippy since you know she likes that and gradually add more water to it.
Good luck!

Maybe check with your doc and see if you can start giving her milk -- if so, put milk in the sippy and try a few.

The suggestions I've read is to put something they like and are used to drinking in the sippy -- that way it's not a completely strange thing to them, and just the delivery method is different.

She may not ever like a sippy cup. Some kids don't and they go straight to a regular cup. Have you tried using a plastic cup instead? My son also like to drink from a water bottle or juice bottle like we do. I bought these caps from One Step Ahead and they turn them in to spill proof drinks. Hope that helps!

Just keep trying the sippy with water and she will take to it eventually. You could try different types of sippies as different babies do better with different types, but keep all you buy because they change their favorites too. :) We've ended up with a full variety of sippies! :) With my older son, we had to hold the sippy for him while he drank for what felt like the longest time. It just takes longer for some than others. With getting close to one, remember too that she is transitioning from primary nutrients being from formula to solids. If she'll take even a couple ounces of formula in a bottle, I'd still do formula like that while she is getting used to the sippy and is then ready for water and milk in a sippy, but continue to offer the water in a sippy even though she just plays with it. She'll get used to drinking from it after she fully explores it. :) I'd stay away from juice as an everyday drink as it often causes kids to "not like" water. Water is healthy and juice is unnecessary as it's better to get the nutrients in juice from the actual entire fruit. I hope this helps and hang in there...she'll drink when thirsty so long as she is offered formula in a bottle (or water in a sippy once she knows full well how to get the water from the sippy).

Could she just not like the cup you're using? My son wasn't too keen on sippy cups for a long time - he much preferred a real cup (supervised, in his high chair) or drinking from my bicycle water bottle if we were out and about. She'll drink when she's thirsty, don't worry.

Does she know how to drink from a straw? If not try teach her, and then leave a straw cup with water around and see how she does. My daughter started playing with her older brother's water cup (straw) and started drinking from it. I've never given her water in a regular sippy cup. She did spit out a lot of water because she thought it was a game and still does sometimes (she's 18 months) but try the straw cup... even if she takes a couple of sips every so often, once she gets the hang of it she will drink more. My daughter now drinks 3-4 sippy cups of water a day if not more.

Good luck.
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For the sippy cup: my son wouldn't take it either so I switched to a straw. They make these drinking cups that look like a sippy cup, but the top is a straw. It took him about 10 seconds to learn it: he chewed on the straw for a second, accidentally sucked in and then was excited when he got something out of it. Now the novelty has warn off a bit, but he still drinks from it here and there, which is a great way to get some water in him.