It’s difficult to get children to drink adequate water, especially when they are used to sugary commercial juices. One trick I have up my sleeve is fizzy water. My three year old loves it! I have a home setup that I will detail below, but first some advice.

Infused water advice for kids: grow a couple of herb plants in your yard. I grow mint and lemon balm all year here in Oregon, then basil in the summer. Herbs introduce your child to flavors they might not experience in everyday foods.

Kids love picking and tearing the leaves themselves, which gets them in the garden. And tearing is an important part of using herbs in infused waters because torn leaves release their essences better than whole leaves.

RECIPE: soda water + torn mint leaves. Use a straw to push the leaves down under the water. I like these metal straws. Straws also prevent leaves from accidentally being sucked down.

The flavor is subtle, but it’s there and your child will be excited to drink water. That’s the end goal.

Mint and lemon balm are hardy. This mint plant comes back and spreads every spring, despite me plucking it during the winter. Grow it in a planter to keep it contained or else it will spread across your yard.

Why the ugly picture of the plant above? It’s lemon balm and it is bombproof. Anyone can grow it. Some consider it to be a weed. Lemon balm tastes fantastic in tea. I drink it all year long.

You can make fizzy water at home without Soda Stream. It takes some speciality parts, all available on Amazon, and a trip to a brewing store for a CO2 container that will probably last you three years of making fizzy water every single day. Here are the parts required for this snazzy setup (warning: affiliate links):

-Ferroday Stainless Carbonation Cap Counter Pressure Bottle Filling

-Ferroday 0.5 Micron Diffusion Aeration Stone Carbonating Stone

-Brewer Ball Lock Cornelius Corny Keg Gas Line Assembly

-Keg Regulator CO2

-And a CO2 tank from a brew store, which is refillable for about $15.

I SET THIS UP MYSELF WITHOUT HELP. I am not a technical person. I read some tutorials and watched some YouTube videos. This is the most extensive tutorial: http://www.truetex.com/carbonation.htm

Tip: the guy at the brew store who sold me my tank said that he would be happy to set the whole thing up for me if I was feeling uncomfortable. For free. So there is in-person help out there for you if you need it.

That’s me and my guy shaking up our daily soda water. I hope it works out for you!