Get off the bottle, kid!
p.s. I can’t believe I actually had more than 4 words to say about this topic. Who knew one could babble so much about sippy-cups and bottles. Why is this consuming so much of my thoughts... and yet not be super proactive...hmmm. Life's mysteries.
I feel M.I.A. This past month has felt like life has taken me hostage. It grabbed me, threw me in an itchy burlap sack before it dumped me into the slammer. Albeit a slammer that has above average accommodations, like wine and chocolate. But you know what I mean? You ever feel like that? Like you’re just living life thinking “…and on to the next task. And on to the next.” There’s no time for anything fun or all the “fun” things start to feel like just another chore. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Between working more, stuff around the house and STILL trying to shake these last few damn pounds (which, at this point, I don’t think I can call it “Baby Weight” anymore! I mean, let’s call a spade, a spade!), even little responsible “mom things” like trying to get the Little Monkey off of the bottle has taken a backseat.
But I think “finding the balance” is one of life’s great mysteries. Is it not? You never really find it. Or you find it for a little while before the wheels fall off again. Then there you are, on the side of the road, in the mud, trying to put the tires back on. And I’m wishing I had paid more attention in Car Care class (…that was DEFINITELY a class in my high school. I think I took it twice!).
Anyway, I digress, as I have in life. I wanted to bitch and moan about this whole charade of getting Ailish off of the bottle! To be fair, I sort of feel like we’ve barely tried. We haven’t really given it our “ALL,” mainly because I keep forgetting. I’m a little nervous this is what’s going to happen when she’s supposed to be potty-training, so I better buck up now and figure this poppycock out!
I had read all about how “prolonged use of the bottle” can jack-up a kid’s teeth, so I started Ailish on a sippy cup when she was 6 months old. Saving her teeth AND I heard the bottle transition could be a real pickle so I wanted to make it easier on myself…not her. Me!
I got her an array of sippy cups, so she didn’t just get hooked on another type of drinking vessel. (ALERT: Bragging moment approaching) She took to ALL of the sippy cups immediately! Even a Camelbak. It was like she was born to drink out of a sippy cup. Like she had been waiting all her life to drink out of these cups! PLUS, she got used to drinking water all the time.
Fast-forward 8-months, to us now hitting the downside. She will ONLY drink water out of the sippy cups. Nothing else. No Pedialyte. No Pediasure. No juice. And definitely no “disgusting milk;” as her face so kindly implies with every sip ventured. First, it’s the look of disgust. Then promptly, she looks at me with betrayal. How dare I.
We need a game plan. One we will stick with! She drinks two bottles of milk a day. One in the morning and one before bed. But it’s not like she’s attached to the bottle. She doesn’t carry it around or anything. She actually shoves it away aggressively once it’s empty. Our loose plan is to offer her milk in a sippy cup at meals while decreasing the temperature of her bottles. You know, to get her used to drinking cold milk. I never remember to heat up the milk we put in the sippy cup so that might be a place to start? But I sort of think she can’t chug the milk out of the sippy cup like she can out of the bottle. Everyone likes a good chug every now and again… or twice a day.
How did you transition? How long did it take? I have so many friggin’ sippy cups in my cupboard, I don’t think I could buy anymore. Maybe I just need a giant note on the fridge telling my forgetful brain to warm up the sippy cup milk? I don’t know. This seems like it should be so easy.
