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Problems with Drinking Fluids

NAS76172

Hi,

My partner has a 5 year old non verbal autistic boy and we are at a loss as to what to do. We struggle to get him to consume any type of drink and it has got to the point where his lips are severely dry, cracked and bleed.

He takes some sips of tea and diet pepsi and might have the equivalent of 1 cup of fluids in a day. It doesn't help that he only accepts sugary drinks which we realise does not help the situation greatly but it is the only type of fluid we can get in him.

We try to encourage him to drink but too much persistence results in rejectment. He won't eat liquid rich foods and has a very beige diet.

As a result of his cracked lips (the cold weather is also a big contributing factor) he gets really upset and screams the house down. We try to comfort him but it can be very hard as we can't communicate with him other than him grabbing our hands and placing them on his lips which is him trying to tell us it hurts. We try to vaseline them when he is asleep as he wont let us put anything on when he's awake.

Besides the cracked lips we are very concerned for his health as he is clearly dehydrated.

Is there anyone in a similar situation or has any advice? It is very upsetting knowing what he needs but being unable to explain to him if he drank more the problems would go away.

We have tried straws, ice lollies, different cups/glasses/mugs and gently forcing fluid in his mouth but this is not a solution.

Any help or advice is appreciated.

Parents

  • Gosh, that sounds difficult. 

    I imagine that once it becomes “an issue” and you’re into a parent/child struggle, it’s difficult to break the cycle.  Fizzy drinks / caffeine are definitely not good for the liver; even worse if the child is dehydrated and they aren’t being flushed through.  

    I imagine you’ve done variations of all the things outlined below but here goes in case it sparks any new thoughts for you:

    Let him choose his own cup/glass/beaker. Or a special bottle?

    Do you know if he prefers cold or hot drinks?  As a child I had an absolute horror of lukewarm ‘cold’ drinks (I still do, to some extent).  For me a drink is either very cold, or hot (unless its red wine or something); there are no acceptable stages in between those extremes.  Cold soft drinks, or things like cider, need ice; beer needs to be in a glass so cold it frosts (I can enjoy a beer every now and then but loathe lukewarm beer served in UK pubs).  I’m not saying he’s the same, but he may have temperature preferences of some sort???? 

    Are you using tap water or bottled?  Whichever, is it worth swapping, and letting him know that, and seeing if that makes a difference?  Again, as a child, I read an article about what was in tap water; the water was (of course) perfectly safe, but that was it, no more tap water (this at a time before bottled water was available).  I know bottled water may contain tiny things that aren't great, too (plastic micro particles for eg) but is the 'source' of the water worth looking at???  Obviously at five he hasn't read anything that's put him off, but something may have.  

    Have a routine for drinks so that everyone in the house sits down to drink at the same time every day, without making a big thing about it, or even really discussing it???  It just becomes part of the background tapestry of family life that everyone has a drink at that time???

    Maybe if he has a favourite activity, do that during your drink break, so that it becomes fun?  Some kind of treat?  OK maybe that’s my ‘dog trainer head’ but maybe there’s something there???  It's a cliche amongst people who train dogs, but are also parents, that there are significant similarities between parenting a two year old child and looking after a two year old dog, and what works for one quite often works for the other, with a little adaption (OK, yours is five, but you get the principle). 

    Perhaps accept that currently he won’t drink much, so just put a small amount in the glass, so it’s not a huge mental hill to climb, then gradually increase it, imperceptibly, every couple of days???  Do it with a measuring cup so you’re ultra accurate but take a l-o-n-g time to build up (months) so that it’s not a challenge?  Accept that you have to sometimes take a backward step and go to last week’s measurement if he balks????

    Wishing you all the very best with him.  I’m sure others will have some ideas.  

  • in reply to PersonAnon

    Hi PersonAnon,

    Thank you for your response. You've given us a few ideas ro try that we didn't think of. We will see if changing to bottled water helps at all and will look into the routine drink time.

    I don't think he's bothered about the temperature of his drinks but we didn't think of that either. So thank you.

Reply
  • in reply to PersonAnon

    Hi PersonAnon,

    Thank you for your response. You've given us a few ideas ro try that we didn't think of. We will see if changing to bottled water helps at all and will look into the routine drink time.

    I don't think he's bothered about the temperature of his drinks but we didn't think of that either. So thank you.

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