If you’ve spent more than five minute outdoors in South Florida, you know all year long we need to beat the heat. Hydration is always important for children, but even more so during summer months when so much time is spent outside. But what if your kids don’t like water? Mine didn’t either, until we tried some of Stacy Winton’s tricks! She’s a dietitian with Memorial Healthcare System, and really has some great ideas to get that ever important agua into our little ones!
7 tricks to get your kids to drink water
1. Water Filter
First, the water has to taste good, or bye bye to your hydration dreams. If your city water has an odd taste, consider buying a filter pitcher like a Brita. It’s way more economical and eco- friendly than cases of plastic bottled water. Or you can install your own water filter in to your fridge!
2. Fancy Ice Cubes
Most children prefer cold water to room temperature, so spruce it up! Place blueberries, raspberries, cut grapes, melon cubes, pineapple chunks, etc. into ice cube trays, fill with water, and freeze like this. Fill a glass with these super fun and fruity cubes, add water (flat or sparkling), and let the drinking begin. You can also do the same thing with tube-shaped ice molds designed to fit through water bottle necks; they’ll chug down the water to get to the ice-pop (and fruit) inside!
3. Hydrating Popsicles
Fill popsicle molds with unsweetened flavored sparkling water and fruit. Then add mandarin orange slices to tangerine seltzer, or kiwi slices to lemon-lime seltzer and freeze for a slightly fizzy refreshing, hydrating snack-beverage. Or try this recipe from Gym Craft Laundry!
4. Infused Water
This is the newest craze in our house! Keep infused waters on hand within easy reach of little hands, and few napkins hand when they forget to stop the spout. Add ingredients to a pitcher, mason jar, or water bottle, fill with water to the top, then cover and refrigerate for a few hours to allow the fruits to infuse their flavors into the water. I bought my container at Wal-Mart for $5, and after an hour you can taste the fruit flavor! Have fun experimenting with different combinations, and try letting your kids choose, like a mini #ONENEWFOOD. Here are some tasty recipes to get you started. These are all for two cups of water; double or triple the ingredients to suit the container:
- Strawberry Lemon: 3-4 sliced strawberries + ½ lemon, sliced
- Orange-Cinnamon Cooler: 1 orange sliced + ½ – 1 whole cinnamon stick (to taste)
- Raspberry Mint: ½ cup washed raspberries + 5 mint leaves
- Cucumber Citrus: 6 thin cucumber slices + ½ lemon, lime, or orange slices
5. Crazy Straws
It sounds simple but it works, kids love straws! Try silly straws, curly straws, stainless steel straws (they come with brushes for cleaning), or mustache straws. Popular home stores or Amazon has tons of fun straws. There are even star-shaped ice cube trays with space for a straw – when frozen it looks like a magic wand that your little princess will love! (so cute!)
6. Fancy Water Thermos
Water just seems to taste better when it’s served in a special “fancy” or colorful cup, as long as it’s the right color of course. Look for sports themes, super-hero themes, princess themes and more! Our girls love “big girl” thermoses as well, with built in ice tubes to keep it nice and cold for school
7. Mini Water Bottles
Keep small water bottles with sports tops easily accessible in the refrigerator; young children love the feeling of independence when they can go to the refrigerator and get their own “big kid” bottle all by themselves.
And don’t forget to model your own water ways! While it may be tempting to reach for sodas and sports drinks, if your children see you drinking water in a variety of ways, it will encourage them to do the same. Monkey see, monkey do yo.
Thanks to Stacy Winton, MS, RD/LD, CNSC for these excellent tips. Happy Hydrating!
Want to keep your kids healthy playing sports? Read these tips from an NBA coach!
Or the Top 5 Healthy Snacks for Kids Playing Sports!
Want more great healthy living tips, please follow along on Facebook! And if you’d like to rid your home of picky eating, consider joining our ONE NEW FOOD movement. You can inspire little ones to try new things, #ONENEWFOOD at a time!
Thanks for this. I’ve been trying to drink more water myself, but I need to get my kids involved too, especially with summer coming. As much as I hate to use those little bottles, the kids always drink more when they can do #7. Maybe I can save those for the extra hot days as an added incentive.
Again, this is great, because honestly my younger daughter hates drinking water and so trying a few of these, especially the popsicles!!
I like that a water filter is number one on your list. We bought one last year and I noticed a huge improvement in the amount of water we all started drinking!
Awesome suggestions! I love this! My kids are pretty good about water yet these are such fun ideas. I like my water infused! Those popsicles are a great idea too! Sharing!
My daughter is obsessed with water, but I have to remind my son to drink up and those little water bottles help! I will have to try these other ideas too!
Love this post. Such easy and fun ideas. We drink a ton of infused water. My favorites are orange ones or even pineapple.
I totally needed this post! My daughter (3) has just been chugging lemonade as it has been a favorite lately and I have been constantly trying to swap it with water and she throws a fit. Will have to try all of these tricks!
Oh boy – I use these for ME! My kids are better about hydration than I am. I love the straws, I love infused waters, and I love crazy fun ice cubes. Thanks for this!
Water popsicles with fruit! Now why didn’t I think of that! Absolutely genius!
I love how pretty the ice cubes look. Good for kids but also how pretty would these be for a brunch?
Great tips thank you! I really like the popsicle with fruit idea. I’ll have to give it a try for my little one.
Great tips! I need to follow some of them myself to make sure I’m getting enough water too. I like that container you have with the infused water. My smaller kids always have a hard time pouring for themselves from a pitcher. Time to make a trip to Walmart! 🙂
Ooooo I’m going to have to make those Popsicles! Its such a battle to get my daughter to drink water. I even have to fight her to drink juice. She just wants milk 24/7 and Ughh… No you can’t have milk all day everyday so every day is a battle lol…
I would try the infusing water trick too! It really works!
It’s so hard to keep our 3-yyear-old hydrated! Love the fruit popsicles trick…can’t wait to try that this summer. (P.S. – I bought the same pitcher – it was a steal!)
These are awesome ideas! Getting my daughter to drink more water has been a constant struggle for us so I really want to try these out. One question though, are there any negatives to kids drinking infused water all the time instead of just plain old water?
I love infused water – I have a personal fruit infused water bottle, so that may do the trick. Or kids also like characters or fun prints, you may want to let them pick out a bottle with a fun print on it that they can refill. Great tips, thanks for sharing!