i am not sure how old your son is, but once when i was trying so hard to get emily to drink water, i told her that it was clear juice (you can buy clear lime cordial....and it was in a green cup too) and so she drank it without fail.... (no there was no cordial in the water lol)
When she finished i gave her some more.....and half way through her drinking it i told her it was really water.....but it didn't seem to bother her...
Hope this helps

I know exactly what your going through as my youngest who is 2.5 was the same. I give him very watered down cordial ( half what it says on the bottle) at dinner time. The rest of the day it's water with milk at breakfast and in the afternoon and it was a battle getting him to that point. There were many tantrums and tears but we eventually got there. He still asks for cordial but I say "no it's water time" and he goes along with it. He will drink it if he's thirsty enough. Get the whole family in on it and drink water with him. It was especially hard as my oldest loves water and drinks it all the time and they weren't brought up the same way.  I work in a Pre-school where the kids only drink water at lunch time and parents have said to us that there is no way their child will drink water, but they do because it's all that's offered.  Good Luck, I know it's hard!!!

If you start adding things to water you may find that he will refuse water even more when you try to get it for him.  I wrote some advice on introducing water, but don't know how to link.  In our house, water is the only thing available apart from milk and milk is only for sometimes.  My daughter is only allowed to have 1 gladd of milk a day as she has it on her cereal and in cooking, and also eats other types of dairy.  Too much milk is not good.  So if you limit the milk intake and only have water available at all times he will not have a choice. Children can be stubborn but he will eventually drink it if you don't give in because as stubborn as children are they will always eat/drink when they need to, they don't have the willpower to go without what they need just to prove a point or just cause they don't feel like that and want something sweet instead.  Good luck with it all.  Just remember that once anything is added, it's no longer water it becomes something else.

 

hi i use to be in child care and with the bubs and the todies we only offered them water first and tried to keep the milk for when they were due for a sleep

with my own son, when we were first doing the water i got the golden circle juice poppers for babies and only put in 3 tea spoons of the juice to a little over a cup of water

just so that there was a little hint of tast, now when ever he sees a water bottle, well lets just say good luck keeping it from him let a lone getting it back from him.

hope that helps

 

great advice cazza ,,, we all drink just water here arround bubby also ,,

here some tips to get your little man to drink water, and also worked with my 3 year old as well.
have water on the table at each meal and everyone has a mug/glass.. Setting a example for the whole family may encourage him to feel that he needs to follow what you all do.
 
Only buy soft drinks,  cordials, and juices on occassions, dont have them in the house all the time..

Limit hi s milk intake- and aways offer water first, if he is thirsty enough he will drink it.
 
Also by limiting his juice intake to one a day diluted with water helps as well.

Carry a water bottle with you when you are out.
 And also explains to his carers if he goes to care and relatives to also offer him water him before milk..

Hope this helps you, and good luck...

When i worked in a nursing home we had alot of the edely clients not wanting to drink because they found it painfull to get up and go to the toilet or they found it degrading to ask for help. They thought that if they didnt drink then they wouldnt need the loo. Anyway we use to give them jelly which is nearly all water any way. They didnt go to the toilet any more offten but it did cut down on their confusion (which is linked with dehydration) and made them less prone  to urine infections.

Another way is to get some of those favored mineral waters and either add fresh fruit and freeze into lollys or leave them plain and freeze into lollys.