Conference moira::parenting_v3

    She won't be dehydrated - she will drink when she is thirsty.  At this
    point remember drinking is not her sole intake of nourishment like it
    was when she was younger - she is getting liquid nourishment in other
    forms now.
    
    Once the bottle is taken away, she will decrease her drinking to what
    suits her.  Don't worry - just remember to offer her drinks of water
    during the day and juice/milk at meal/snack times.  Get her used to the
    idea of drinking water at any time during the day - get her used to
    asking/having it available to her.  Sounds like she is doing just fine!
    
    -sandy
    

    32 oz. is pretty healthy by all the "expert" standards. What matters
    more is that she continues to wet diapers, sheds tears when she cries,
    and her mucus membranes are moist.
    
    It's really common for kids to decrease their liquid intake at about
    this age, and especially when they are moving from a bottle to a cup.
    Ryan did this at 1 year, and I'd chase him around the house with a cup
    in hand, constantly offering liquids, and usually milk because I was
    afraid he wasn't getting enough. My dr. assured me that he was getting
    his calcium thru yogurt and cheese and not to worry about the fluid
    intake. Sure enough, when I stopped making an issue of offering the cup
    constantly, and simply made it available instead, his drinking evened
    out and he seemed to drink roughly 32 oz overall per day.
    
    best of luck,
    

    My only caution is to watch out for heat stroke if it is really hot -
    we live in Texas and have run into this problem with our youngest...
    

    Kat used to get dehydrated to the point of crankiness and headache
    if I didn't follow her around with water all summer long. 
    
    What we found works very well for David are water bottles -- the
    kind with the lid and the big plastic straw, usually advertising
    an amusement park or soft drink, work especially well, but the
    squeeze bottles like you carry on a bike are pretty good too.
    
    It's easier to drink from that than from a cup, but it's not going
    back to the bottle, either.
    
    --bonnie

    
    re .4
    
    Thanks Bonnie, I was looking for a "neat" solution for drinking 
    in the car.  Does David take the straw out and wave it around?
    
    Rochelle

    Rochelle,
    I had this similar problem at 15 months, weaning my daughter from the
    bottle to the cup and I thought I would go nuts following her around
    and wondering if I should put her back on the bottle.  We lived in
    Hawaii and I was always worried about dehydration.  Well, here it is 12
    months later and I have to chuckle remembering this thinking it would
    never end.  One suggestion I have is like .4 - straws.  My daughter
    still uses straws in all her cups ( you get more quicker) and yes, even
    now she waves those straws all over the place - the latest being her
    7-11 "Slurpee" treats after school, that inevitably ends up on the
    windshield, dashboard, etc. when the straw goes flying.  Hang in there,
    in no time it will be another worry :^) !!
    Kristy

    One more thought, buy the juice packs (I know you said you were giving
    up on juice for a while but apple juice and alot of water in it!!) like
    Hi-C that are pre-packaged usually in 3's, and see if you can find a
    plastic container that fits over the juice boxes (very important,
    otherwise the juice squirts all over) and carry one in the diaper bag,
    your purse, whatever, to have something on hand in case it's hot out,
    or whatever and you're not able to stop for water.  You don't have to
    keep them refrigerated, when they need something to drink it won't
    matter if it's ice cold or not.  And I found I was thankful I had kept
    the diaper bag stocked up on them.  
    
    Kristy
    

    
    For what's its worth, juice boxes are a recycling nightmare (as well
    as a rather expensive way to buy juice).  You may want to reserve
    the use of them for emergencies as described in .7.  As far as the
    squirting is concerned, the "Capri Sun" drinks in the foil bags seem
    a bit less apt to squirt the juice. 
    
    A friend suggested the small thermos containers with the flip top for 
    young children and they really work great!   Except that all you can hear
    from the front seat is the kid opening and closing the top...
    
    Carol                          

    I had the same problem with Alyssa.  But what I found to work was this:
    
    I went to the store and let her pick out her favorite cup.  She picked
    a cup that was like a training cup, but had the plastic straw that was
    attached to the lid.  If I can remember correctly, it used to leak a
    little when tipped over, but I didn't really care, as long as she was
    drinking.
    
    Alyssa also liked to drink milk in those little half pint containers
    with a straw.
    
    My doctor had told me that she will seem to drink less because they
    always drink more from a bottle because they like to suck on the
    nipple.  As soon as you take that nipple away, they don't really have
    any pleasure in drinking anymore.  As someone mentioned earlier, she 
    will drink when she's really thirsty.
    
    
    Good luck,
    
    Gail

    I found a neat little canteen type container at a local department
    store for $1.99 that had a carrying handle, screw top with a straw
    in it - and the straw could be bent over and stuck into a little "cap"
    attached to the cover.  We used them this past weekend on a 9-hour car
    trip for my 4 and 6 yr old.  They loved having access to them and they
    were easy to use.
    
    -sandy
    

    One word of "caution":
    
    Our kids just love those canteen type "sports" bottles, with the straw
    through the lid. So much so, that they sucked down nearly one quart of
    water each in the first 15 minutes of a 300 mile trip on limited access
    highways. Talk about a nightmare! Just try to find a bathroom soon
    enough for 3 and 5 yr. old bladders when they've drunk that much in
    such a short time! They literally needed to pee every 10 minutes for
    the next hour! Aarghh!!! We vowed *Never again*! From now on, it's just
    small amounts at a time and spaced plenty apart, at least on those long
    trips.....
    
    --dave--

    Thanks for all the creative suggestions.  I think i will go out and get 
    lots of fun straws and different cups to try.

    For what it's worth - I also spoke with my pedi's nurse to find out whether 
    I need to worry about dehydration.  She said that as long as Michelle is
    drinking at lease 16 - 20 oz a day, and urinating at least three times,
    there is no cause for concern.  (I'm not sure I believe that 16 oz is 
    enough on a hot day - but since Michelle is drinking twice that - I guess
    i really was worried about nothing)

    -Carol

    For a while David liked to take the straw out and wave it around,
    and then put it back in, and then take the cap off and put it back
    on, and shake it to make water come out of the top, etc. etc. etc. 
    But it didn't last long.  
    
    We never had the problem Dave describes of chugging so much water
    they needed every-ten-minute pit stops.   David and Steven have
    rationed themselves pretty well.  I think it might be because they
    were used to drinking water around the house, on shorter trips,
    etc. and it wasn't such an exciting novelty.  
    
    --bonnie

    
    A little late in responding but ...
    
    My daughter stopped drinking milk and demanding juice (as stated in the
    base note). The trick to getting her to drink milk again was to call
    it "moo juice". As long as it was juice and not milk she would drink
    it.
    
    Cups? We have an 10oz cup with a cover. The top turns in two directions.
    One direction pushes a straw out to drink from, the other direction
    pulls the straw back in. And best of all - no leaks!
    
    Doug.
                                                   

    Great thoughts, now along these line....Can anyone point me to where I
    can get the little things that were mentioned a few back, the square
    things that go around the Juice boxes?  Secondly, are they insulated or
    just designed to keep them from being squeezed?
    
    I did see them earlier in the spring, but I had no use for them at the
    time.  But for the last several weeks we've been required to put juice
    boxes in his lunchbox on the days the daycare goes to camp.  I use a
    thermos with a flip up spout periodically, but "mr socially acceptable"
    has let me know that thermoses are out and juice boxes are what's
    required on camp days.  
    
    By the way, read the labes CAREFULLY!  A majority of what's sold in
    juice boxes are ONLY 10% juice!!  I buy things like Speas Farms or
    Motts fruit juice punch, or mixes like cran-something, or pure apple juice. 
    (FWIW-the Cran juice is pretty hefty in sugar and corn syrup too)
    
    My inlaws brought one of those huge cups with a straw back from one of
    their vacations, someone had the same experience I did, he sucked down
    the whold 32 ounces, and we couldn't find a place fast enough to let it
    all out!!
    
    Lyn

    I'm quite sure Spag's has the hard plastic covers for juice boxes.  I
    never bought them because Alex learned fairly early that squeezing
    boxes --> stains on clothes --> angry Mom...
    
    And on camp/field trip days, Alex's daycare and kindergarten always
    stipulated juice boxes because *all lunch leftovers* (including
    containers) were to be discarded after their lunch break; if you didn't
    brown-bag it, you'd lose a lunchbox.  See if that's the real reason for
    juice boxes at your son's school!
    
    Leslie

    
    Lyn,
    
    I've seen the juice box holders - in cute shapes like trains, lions,
    etc. - at Caldors.  I suppose since they're plastic that they provide
    some insulation; but the purpose is primarily to provide a rigid
    shell, I believe.
    
    Carol

    I saw them at Bradlees too.  In the Housewares dept. near
    the placemats.
    
    Linda

re : where can you find them....>>>

	I've seen two types at the store called LETCHERS (sp?) at
	the Searstown mall in Leominster.....one is the plastic,
	rigid kind already described...the other is softer, like
	the soft-sided 6-pack and picnic carriers and (I think)
	made of the same material which would mean they're slightly
	insulated.......

    Thanks everyone, this weekend with only a couple weeks of camp left,
    I'm going "in search of" the juice box covers.
    
    Did I mention I tried earlier this week I froze a juice box, and a
    container of swiss style yogurt for his lunchbox?  He loved the idea,
    and by the time lunch came both were cold, but no longer frozen!
    
    By the way, for a couple  back, lunch boxes are the "norm" for all the
    campers.  I like the idea simply because you don't get squashed sandwiches
    because if you sit on a lunchbox the sandwich won't "squish".