Yes, they like fruit a ton. I don’t mind them eating fruit, but I have to be careful because of the fructose. Ds still can’t have a lot of sugar (including fruit sugars), so he’s only eating those fruits which are lower on the glycemic index (berries, oranges, apples). I do add water to our smoothies, so maybe that helps some. They’ve been getting better, although I’m still reminding them quite a bit.
I did invest in a metal water bottle that I found on the Dollar Aisle in Target. It was $2.50, and they love drinking out of it. I always fill it up before we leave the house, so we have it in the car, at the park, etc. Maybe I’ll splurge another $5 and get them their own.
I’ll have to run in Target and look for that bottle-I keep an eye out for glass, too. I’ve bought Kombucha from the health food store on occasion and kept the glass bottle. Our maple syrup comes in glass, too-I’ve recycled those into water bottles for the park :~) They’re pretty strong although they don’t hold a lot.
Whole Foods sells a gallon jug that will not leach chemicals-my dh takes that to work each morning.
I would tell the dc to drink up. There’s no problem with reminding. One of my sons has that same tendency-holds off most of the day and then drinks a lot before bed. I just need to remind him throughout the day.
For my non drinking girl, I often just tell her for the “next” thing…”Get a good drink of water, then do….” Honestly, I do this all day, making it like one of the requirements of the “next” thing. We have heart issues in my family (I had OHS in 2003) and when this sweet girl starting being short of breath 2 years ago I took her straight to a cardiologist. After a thorough examination the doctor looked right at me and told “She needs to drink more water, that’s all!”
Lindsey, if you have an Old Navy, they have CUTE stainless steel water bottles that my girls LOVE. There are cool “boy” ones too 🙂 Oh, and they were only $5 this past week. We just watch out for all the broken cross signs that are on a lot of the ON products, and came home with some fun floral and fruit patterns!
i guess this might not work if you have to watch out for fructose, but my kids and i try to drink a lot of water. We do plain water for sure, but everyone’s favorite is water with just a splash of juice. we often use purple grape for all the antioxidants, and because it’s a strong flavor. I usually do about 1 oz juice to 7, 8, or 9 oz water. Just enough to color the water a bit. So it stretches the juice, doesn’t add much sugar, but makes it more tasty and everyone drinks what they need to.
Have you considered treating it as a habit? When our children went through a period of sickness a few years ago, when no one seemed to improve and it was vitally important from them to get enough water, my husband would wake them up in the morning and line up cups filled half full of water (depended on the age of the child) and had them drink it all before breakfast. This procedure would be repeated later in the morning, before lunch, and again before dinner. We slowly increased the amount of water until they were drinking the desired amount. To this day most of my children will drink a glass of water immediately upon waking in the morning. Drinking large amounts of water should be done a half hour before meals so as not to interfere with digestion.