Monday, May 3, 2010

The Sippy Cup Wars... I think we may have conquered

Our baby girl, who is known as Little Sissy around here, turned a year old a month ago.  For the past 6 months or so, we have been introducing her to the sippy cup with no luck.  And when I say sippy cup, I mean every sippy cup on the market.  If we didn't own a particular brand, we bought it and tried it with no luck.  Nuby, Nuk, Playtex, Avent, Gerber... the list goes on.  We even tried water, juice, milk, and formula in the sippy cup with the beverage having ZERO impact on her like or dislike, I should say, of the sippy cup. 

As we got closer and closer to her birthday, I didn't know what we were going to do.  She had been on formula since 8 months and I really didn't want to buy any more after she turned 1 as it was costing $23/week.  I also did not want to put milk or any other beverage in her bottle.  Oh what to do. 

When we visited with the pediatrician for her one year check up, we had a long conversation about this.   When we left, it was decided by all that we would let her keep her bottle until we ran out of formula which would be within a few days of her birthday.  Then if she wanted to drink, she would have to drink from a sippy cup.  Tough love was what the doctor prescribed.

I knew my family thought this was a bit tough for a one year old, but I agreed with the doctor that it would only get harder to negotiate taking away the bottle from Little Sissy as she got older and that we needed to do it now.  So we embarked on the journey of no bottle. 

Week 1 of no bottle ended and Little Sissy was still showing ZERO interest.  She would drink a few sips from a straw here and there and we could "pipette" a few drops into her mouth of water and milk on occasion, but she really seemed like she wasn't thirsty at all.  (This is a very hard concept for me to understand as I am always thirsty and am often called the guzzler at home.)

Week 2 passed and still no interest.  She did show a little interest in the twist spout water bottle, but not much and they leaked.

Finally on Friday night, she picked up a sippy cup and within an hour drank the entire thing and wanted more.  I was cautiously optimistic as this was the end of week 3.  Were we over the hump? Was she going to consistently drink from a sippy cup?  I must admit I don't know the answer, but I hope this is a good sign.

1 comment:

  1. A farmer I knew in Connecticut in vet school used to teach his dairy calves to bucket-feed in a similar (but more aggressive) manner. The story goes that he would hold their head down in a bucket of milk replacer and yell, "Drink or drown, B****, Drink or drown!" Supposedly, they all drank. Glad you didn't have to resort to such tactics!!


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Web Analytics