12mo old refusing liquids

[okinawama]

My son is 12.5 months old and is taking in very little fluids during the day. I would say he takes about 2oz whole milk and maybe 5oz of anything else (water, juice, soy milk, even chocolate milk on one occassion....tried everything) and then a 4oz bottle (however, the past two nights he's refused this as well). He knows how to drink out of a sippy, and will do so, but then spits the liquid it right back out.

This is relatively new behavior. We started him on a sippy around 5 months, and for the most part he just plaid with it, but I at least wanted to expose him to it. He started to get better at it as the months past and around 10ish months he took water out of it frequently, but would never take formula, I thought he was just used to having formula in a bottle and would take milk from the sippy when we introduced it.

Anywho, now that he's refusing his night bottle I would say we are doing good to get 7-10oz of liquids all day in him. I offer constantly, and I've used a million different sippy cups, straws, camel back, water bottle....and there is no difference. I am starting to worry about dehydration and constipation. He's recently starting having to strain a lot to have a BM, and when he does it's really solid.

Is this a phase? What else can I do to get fluids in him? When should I start to worry?

[catpagmo]

When my DS was doing this I used to drop juice/milk/whatever into his mouth from a straw. He thought it was a game, and I tried to make it fun. You could even spoon it into his mouth every 10 minutes if he's really dehydrated.

I'm thinking that it's either just a phase, or maybe he has a sore throat. My DS just had tonsilitis, and wasn't drinking much because it hurt to swallow.

I would just keep doing what you're doing, and keep offering it to him. He'll take it eventually. I know how frustrating it is.

[mom2beofboy/girltwins]

Wow. I was actually going to post this exact same question today. My twins will be turning 1 this weekend and I am having the same problem with DD. It's always been somewhat of a struggle to get her to drink her bottle but over the past few weeks its gotten completely out of hand. Everytime you even start to try and give her the bottle she just starts screaming and having a fit. I was at least being able ot get her to drink 6 - 8 oz in the morning and usually 5 oz at night (plus maybe a total of 5-7 oz throughout the course of the day at daycare). But I can't even get her to do this anymore. Yesterday was less than 4 oz all day and then only 2 oz at night. Then this morning she'd only drink 4.

My concern is exactly the same as yours dehydration and constipation.

She eats plently of food (baby food and table food) so I'm not really too concerned about nutrition. I kind of feel like it's becoming a power trip and I don't want to reinforce that if she has a tantrum fit that she gets her way. I've tried a varity of sippy cups in addition to the bottle as well as juice, but it doesn't seem to matter. So I'll ask the same question as you, is the fluid intake important enough to fight her about this or should we just let her drink what she wants to?