How to get kids to drink more water

Drinking water is important for good bowel and bladder health, and for tackling daytime wetting, nighttime wetting and poo problems like constipation, but it can be hard to get kids to drink enough.

They should consume 6-8 glasses of water or water-based fluid every day, but how can you get them to drink that much?

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We asked our Facebook followers what methods they use to help ensure their children stay hydrated. These are their tried and tested top tricks.

1. Make ice lollies using well diluted squash. Don’t add sugar and avoid using blackcurrant squash which can irritate the bladder.
2. Draw lines on drinks bottles. This gives kids a visual goal of how much they should drink at different times of the day, which helps when they’re at school and it’s hard to keep track of how much they’re drinking.
3. Jazz up their water with ice cubes, umbrellas and slices of fruit.
4. Buy or customise your own funky straws.
5. Let them choose their cup and fill it themselves.
6. Make sugar-free jellies that contain the equivalent of one cup of water.
7. For younger children let them use a play tea set and fill up the teapot with water and ask them to make some ‘cups of tea’ to drink the water from tea cups. Hold a ‘tea party; and get them involved pouring the water and drinking it.
8. Fill up a water dispenser with an easy tap on the front at home and fill with water and slices of citrus fruit and encourage them to use it throughout the day to get their own drink.
9. Talk to their teacher about encouraging pupils to drink during the day. Their teacher could keep a bottle of water on their own desk and sip from it during the day, or have a ‘carpet time session’ where they explain why water is good for health.
10. Use our Wee Checker colour - chart to see if your child is drinking enough. Print it out and put it on your bathroom door so that child can learn to spot the signs of dehydration and be motivated to have another drink.