Lonely Caterpillar
 

Enjoy more water.

When Robinson set a challenge to ‘enjoy more water’ I initially though wow this will be easy enough my kids drink plenty. But like so many others I didn’t know exactly how much would should be drinking and as it turns out we maybe weren’t drinking as much as we should have been.

My son has a dairy allergy and ASD this over the past 6 years has made food and drink habbits difficult to establish. When Elijah was first born he was very tiny and had stopped growing and had to arrive a few weeks early causing him to instantly be put onto special type of milk that had extra calories, usually babies are on this milk for 6 months but due to a failure to thrive Elijah was on this until he was two years old before moving on to cows milk which prompted and dramtic decline in his growth, and after several trips to doctors, specialists and being admitted to hospital he was diagnosed with a dairy allergy and so we had to change his eating and drinking patters again. By this time Elijah was three and the signs of his ASD where apparent. Often children with ASD can have quite regid routines and ideas about what they eat and drink and introducing new foods and drink can be difficult. Eljah also has an immature bladder which has required surgery serveral times and a year ago we where adviced how avoiding blackcurrent juice could help with bladder control (surprising how something so simple can have such a big impact). Blackcurrent juice was always his favourate, where his sister has always been great at drinking water, Elijah loved his flavours and for the past year we have struggled to get him to take enough fluids which then leads to him being more prone to infection.

When we took on the enjoy more water challenge I suspected that Megan would jump in feet first especially with the reward chart making it almost competitive, shes a sporty fin girl and I know this would be the type of activity she would thrive on. Elijah on the other hand I wasn’t sure about, he doesn’t like to try new things, he is always reluctant to drink thanks to allergies, tummy issues and being set in his ways. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

We bought new water bottles for them and both kids jumped into this challenge, loving trying new flavours, watching the colours change in their water, being amazed how little it took to give the water a new exciting flavour and best of all Elijah found new flavours that he loved. We now have a whole range of flavours he can choose from, he will willingly lift his water bottle and drink from it without being reminded and both kids gained some independence by learning to make their juice all by themselves without pouring the whole bottle of juice into the water.

Even Granny who was some what sceptical that we could get 20 drinks from such a small container of Robinsons squashed, was rapidly won over by the flavours, by how willingly the kids drank up their water and by how handy it is to pop it in your handbag and take it out and about without worrying that a restraint wont have a drink they like or we wont be able to find somewhere with juice when on a day out, (it always amazes me how many places on sell fizzy drinks).

My husband and I have also enjoyed trying out some new flavours and citrus seems to be a firm favourite in the Clarke house.

We have always taken Robinsons Squash’d on our trips to Disneyland Paris but now we have a much better idea of favourite flavours and there will always be some in our car or handbag ready to keep our kids hydrated and heathy.

Robinsons enjoy more water challenge accepted and complete. x

“This post is an entry for BritMums #EnjoyMoreWater Challenge, sponsored by Robinsons”

https://www.robinsonssquash.co.uk