My daughter is 4 1/2 and still will only drink water, milk (white or chocolate), and tea. She will mostly drink water, which I know is awesome for her. She will not drink ANYTHING else. No juice (except maybe a sip or 2 of apple juice). No Kool Aid. No lemonade. Nothing!
I'm not TOO concerned that she doesn't want to drink these things. I know she doesn't need the sugar. But it's so weird! lol I guess my biggest issue is that she won't even bother to taste anything to see if she might like it. I offer her a taste of anything I might be drinking (no sodas), but she refuses. I don't push, I just ask her if she wants to try it & she will say no.
She does get upset if she's at a party or something & sees that they are having juice. She will get upset and cry that she wants water. Usually no big deal to get her some water, but I wish she wouldn't get so upset :(
Anybody else have a child like this?? Did they ever try to drink anything else?? lol
Again, I'm not too worried about it. I've just never seen a kid like this before! I don't want to push her to drink other things, just wonder if maybe she will just grow out of this eventually?
I'd rather her taste something & tell me she doesn't like it than to just not try at all...
I wouldn't worry about this at all! I would be happy if my kiddos didn't want to drink the sugary stuff. :) I would always bring her her own bottle of water any time you go somewhere, that might prevent her from getting upset in the first place.
Kids' natural response to trying something new is always "no". She doesn't need juice, soda, tea, kool-aid, etc. She needs milk and water. Be grateful that you don't have a problem with those, and let it go.
My son is the same way about sauces.
Know most kids live off of catch up and ranch dressing. My son won't eat ANY sauce. Nothing that resembles a sauce.
But the kid will eat raw onion and raw carrot all day long, but won't eat them cooked.
Does she have the same attitude to trying new foods?
Maybe she just knows what she likes and sticks to it.
My son LOVES his water.
He will try other things...as long as mommy or daddy are drinking them *lol*
But most of the time he just wants water.
This may not apply to your issue, but my oldest son did not care for sweets of any kind until about 3 years ago. He is now 9. It was OK with me as he did not need them anyway. It wasn't till he started school and I would send a healthy snack that included apple juice that we discovered that sugar was like a drug to him. He would go absolutely nuts for 15-30 minutes and then he would crash with a headache. During that 15-30 minutes he was very aggressive and once even deliberately socked my 3 month old sleeping baby in the face. At that point, I decided to cut all sugar out of his diet and watch his carbs. I did not have anymore of that behavior as long as he had not had sugar. I am just now really allowing sweets with the understanding that he is old enough to understand what is right and what is wrong behavior. If he can eat something containing sugar occasionally and still control his behavior and keep his grades up I will allow it occasionally but if he cannot control his behavior or his grades drop we will go back to the sugar free diet. He has been diagnosed with ADHD and is also somewhat behind in speech although he has come a long way from where we started. He has been way behind in speech, phonics, reading, and spelling in the past, but this last year he seems to have greatly improved. In fact, this summer I required of him to read either 3 books or 3 chapters of a book daily. At first this was war, but now I find him reading in the morning when I get up, I have to order him to put the book down and go to bed at night, and catch reading off and on throughout the day. I think I have produced a bookworm. I can't wait to see how that effects his grades this year.
Anyway, I was just wondering if it is just drinks or does she shun sweets as well.
My DD is the same way and still to this day, which is great and her doctor when she was a toddler thought it was great. She is 17 now and very healthy, she does not like surgar drinks and still loves her water and milk. The milk is very good for her bones and saves us a lot of money. We are lead to believe that kids must have fruit juice, they don't and I do feel it leads to soda drinking and other drinks with lots of sugar. She is fine and that is just the way she is and we don't want are kids always doing what other kids are doing just to fit in. And yes there are lots of kids like your daughter
My now 6 year old daughter wouldn't drink anything except water from the time she was weaned until she was nearly four. Then she only started trying other things because of peer pressure. First she decided to like milk--her daddy drank milk with cookies and so if she had to drink milk to get a cookie she was willing (now her first drink of choice is milk). Her little sister was getting apple juice by that point, so again she decided that maybe it wasn't too bad. I think that it is great. The less sugary drinks the better. Just make sure to always have some water on hand for her as an option.
I have a similar experience in my family. My 3-year-old boy was quite an adventurous eater as an infant, but at age 2 he became super picky. We had donuts for his most recent birthday party because he refuses to eat cake or ice cream (he liked chocolate ice cream when he was younger). He doesn't like tomato products (hence no spaghetti, no ketchup, no pizza, etc.) The number of things he refuses to eat or even try is astounding. But aside from letting him know, gently but firmly, that we're not short order cooks and dinner is dinner (and including one thing he *will* eat with most meals), I don't fret too much about it.
I was a very picky eater as a child and did not like fresh fruit or Kool-aid or lemonade or any number of other things. I still don't like the texture of whipped cream or salad dressing or pimiento cheese. As a child I couldn't stand more than the thinnest spread of peanut butter and the tiniest dribble of jelly on a sandwich - the texture and the flavor would overwhelm and disgust me. However, when I got into my 20s I began trying new foods, just in case I might like them, and I found I did. Now my favorite cuisine is Indian, but I also love Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, French, German, and of course Italian. I've also tried Malaysian, South African, Moroccan, Greek, Spanish, and Russian, but I have too little experience with them to clearly know I like them.
I would say, keep offering new things to your daughter - she may surprise you by wanting a taste. But try not to get annoyed if she refuses. She may just have very sensitive taste buds and be unable to enjoy these things right now. So long as she knows there are other things to enjoy, and that she may like them in time, but that she is not a disappointment if she does *not* like them, she will have a healthy attitude toward food and her family. :)
Sounds like your daughter has a keen awareness of what her body needs and doesn't need.
Perhaps you'll never have to worry about her teeth or other health related issues.
If it continues through her highschool and college years, peer pressure will not affect her.
You have a good gal on your hands.
One of my kids never tried "junk" juice or soda because she always observed me passing on it. One day I explained why they are not the drinks of choice. She only drinks water, milk, green tea, and occasionally in the summer frshly squeezed lemonade. She is doing fine with those drinks.
Don't worry about it.
