Kid drinking water

5 Creative Ways to Get Your Child to Drink More Water

Drinking water is a subject that many kids loathe. Not because they don’t need water, but due to the simple fact that to them water is neither tasty nor fun. As a parent, when your kid becomes choosy about foods, you will end up preparing whatever meal he or she likes while making sure to include other foodstuffs that make it balanced. However, when it comes to water, many parents are clueless.

Water is essential to a child’s health. It is responsible for the regulation of the body temperature, prevention of constipation, and suppression of chances of urinary tract infections. If your child doesn’t take enough water, he or she will be vulnerable to severe health conditions. To avoid such situations, here are tips to make your child drink the required amount of water daily.

5 Creative ways to get your child to drink more water

Beautify Water

Kids often notice and eat the most colorful food substances, leaving the rest untouched. Since water is neither colorful nor packaged beautifully in most cases, they tend to dislike it.

As a parent, don’t assume that they won’t drink water no matter what. Simply make water pretty by adding healthy and colorful food colors or create ice cubes from water with fruit chunks in it. Your kid will enthusiastically ingest it and he or she might even ask for more.

Make It Tasty

Tap water doesn’t taste great causing many kids to dislike it. Add a squeeze of fresh fruit like pineapples, watermelons, berries, and oranges in water and it transforms its taste, making your kids want to drink more. Make sure to experiment with different types of fruits since kids are also picky when it comes to fruits.


Make Drinking Water Fun

It is hard to come across a kid enjoying water from a cup and yours is no different. You have to make the drinking process fun for your child. One way that works is to give them a straw since kids love the feeling it provides when they slurp water.

You should also get beautifully colored water bottles that your child will enjoy drinking from. Always monitor your child to replace water when it is finished and avoid situations where they refill their bottles with dirty water. During cold seasons, get a good water boiler to keep warm water readily available for refilling your kid’s bottle.

Make It Available

Kids often tend to focus on play so much that they forget about thirst. You should always have a bottle of water nearby for your kid to easily drink whenever they feel thirsty. Sometimes, you will have to encourage them to take a sip or two. Interestingly, they often end up drinking more since the moment they take a sip, they realize that they were indeed thirsty.


Use Other Options

Mix juice or milk with water if your child doesn’t fancy plain water. Play around with the ratios, making sure that water constitutes to half or more. You can also play games whereby your kid has to drink a small glass of water before getting his or her favorite beverage or snack. When this becomes a habit, he or she will have gotten used to drinking water.

You can choose a method to use or simply use them interchangeably to ensure that your young one takes the required amount of water daily. Whichever method that seems to work for you, make sure to follow it through until it becomes a habit.

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24 comments

  1. We have a chart on the fridge and tick off the amount of glasses that everyone has had for the day. the one that had the most water for the month will get a treat. I also add some fruit to make it a bit tastier and easier to drink.

  2. I do believe that us as parents play a vital role. Children are copying us. Thank goodness my boy prefer water over juice but what I have notice is that when we, my husband and I, are drinking something different like ginger ale, he also wants that.

    We as adults need to set the example. The teachers at school also plays a vital role because if the child see you drink coke or anything other than water, then they would also want that.

    Fruit in the water is very nice. Me trying to eat healthy, started to put a some lemon juice in my water…guess what? That’s what my boy wants to drink now.

  3. I am so blessed when it comes water and my daughter. She is 4 years old now and absolutely loves water. She cannot stand anything with gas and would maybe have a sip of juice now and again. Hoping the next little one will be just as easy lol

  4. We are lucky because our little one loves his seriously diluted juice. He drinks about 1L a day but usually more. During a recent hospital stay he did not need IV fluids because of this. Nurses and doctors were very happy because it is apparently usually a struggle to keep them hydrated.

  5. My boy loves drinking water. I found making it interesting really helps too like a funky glass or a crazy curly straw.

  6. i only give my kids water. The one thing that i’m grateful for is that since preschool days, they’ve never been allowed to take any juice or cooldrinks to school. Only water was allowed. My kids have the biggest and heaviest bottles at school and when i fetch them at school i always make sure that they’ve finished their water. They will usually tell me that they had to refill it during the day. if you are really struggling then straws works well. The most important thing here is for us as parents to always remind our kids to drink their water. While they are playing with their friends just take the water bottle and tell them to take a sip. Do it ever so often. The more you drink the more you want. Water is life!

  7. These are some great ideas! I have to agree with the idea of having them sip it through a straw….I tend to drink more water if I drink it through a straw as well, hahaha..don’t ask why! And I like adding sliced strawberries or even slices of cucumber, makes drinking water much easier.

  8. Taking sips through a straw. Just a ”Did you know tidbit”.

    Invest in a super long twisty curly straw, the longer the better. Have your little one close their eyes and then take a long sip from the straw.

    Its a brain exercise. I kid you not.

  9. My daughter cant stand drinking water… No matter how much I scold, scare or bribe her she just refuses.
    Its really bad I know she is only doing what she sees because I dont drink water which is bad I know, but reading this im going to give it shot make it fun so drinking water will be a must

  10. My daughter drinks water alot,I dont even have to remind her,my only problem is fizzy drinks,

  11. Can’t complain about my little one as he asks for water out of his own most days many times throughout the day which is a good thing and he actually drinks it most of the time!

  12. This is one must have in our house, they love water since early age even my 5month it’s something I really glad to see how my kids love water and don’t waste it. Love your post thank you

  13. Is adding fruits in the water oki? I would like to try it

  14. so i buy the mini bottles of Thirsti water so that she enjoys drinking

  15. amazing advise will definitely try it as my 2yr old doesn’t like water much

  16. Stunning this will really help get him to drink water

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