5 Tips to Encourage Your Toddler to Drink More Water

Thanks to Nestlé® Pure Life® Purified Water for sponsoring this post! After creating a post a few weeks ago about Mom's Wisdom I was thrilled to invited back to write another post for Nestle. 


"We want ice water! We want ice water!" chant my son, D, and his pop-pop after coming in from a rigorous play session outside in the steamy sun. They slam their hands down on the table each time they say it as they make their request of mom-mom. Makes a momma proud to know her three year old is actually asking for water!

It's not always that easy to get him to drink water though, particularly if I am the one doing the asking. So I figured why not educate him just like we do everything else about the importance of water and the value of drinking it by incorporating it into everyday fun activities. Sssshh....don't tell him I am actually trying to teach him something! 

You can do these activities all in one day or choose one or two a day depending how much time you have. The key is repeating how important water is to everything including our bodies.

1) Take your toddler outside to play in the sprinkler. Put some music on and dance and run around with them (you know ya wanna!). Make sure the sprinkler is on the grass (if you have grass!) and use it as an opportunity to tell you toddler that the sprinkler is giving the grass a drink. Explain that this is important because the grass serves as food for rabbits and other critters and as a home for bugs and worms, etc. Key point: Bunnies wouldn't have food to eat without the water helping the grass to grow. See how important water is?

2) If you live near a lake or the ocean introduce your toddler to the fishy's "home." Splash in the waves, slid down the slide if you are at a lake while looking for critters living in the water. Talk about them and emphasize that this water serves as their house. Key point: They'd have no where to live without this water. See how important water is?

 

3) While not the jazziest of activities take a drive past a fire hydrant and turn it into a fire safety lesson. Get into detail about fireman and fire trucks and how they use fire hydrants to access water to put out fires. Key Point: Water helps save people's lives. See how important water is?
4) Sit your toddler down for a juicy snack including fruit filled with water like cantaloupe, oranges, grapes, watermelon or all of the above. If you have time, make a cute display like this Turkey Snack by Erin over at $5 Dinners or these cute Fruit Flowers by Amy at Creative Kid Snacks. Include a glass of ice water in their favorite sippy cup to make it more enticing. Get a cup with silly bendy straws, glitter or their favorite character. Whatever it takes to entice them. Then chitchat over snack about how drinking water can keep them hydrated and help them to grow up big and strong like - fill in the blank here. Mention someone your child adores like pop-pop or Uncle Mike. "Drink water so you can grow up big and strong like Uncle Mike." Key Point: Our bodies need water to grow. See how important water is?

5) End the day by snuggling up together and reading a kids book about the importance of keeping hydrating such as Drink Water (Healthy Eating My Pyramid) by Mari C. Schuh or Drinking Water by Helen Frost. I am a firm believer that books help children learn new concepts and help with their verbal skills. I recommend it no matter what lesson you are trying to teach! Key Point: Emphasize ways to enjoy water as noted in the book. See how important water is? They even wrote a book about it!

Bonus Tip: Don't forget to mention the importance of recycling water bottles!

What tricks do you use to keep your toddler hydrated?

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Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Nestlé® Pure Life®.  I have received consideration from Linqia on their materials, tweets and posts.