January 16, 2008
I’m ecstatic! It’s day four that littleQ (my son, currently 23 months, 2 weeks old) has gone completely sans bottle. So that’s it! The complete transition to sippy cup has been accomplished. whew. Interestingly (at least to me), he’s actually quite adept at and has been comfortable with drinking from a regular cup or glass, with and without a straw, however when it comes to his evening “milky” or his lunchtime “juicy”, he’s always insisted, nay, demanded a bottle. But no longer!
I know that some of you are reading and saying to yourself, Well OMG mine was completely off the bottle like, soooo long ago! Mmk, well, my kid isn’t yours, and, quite frankly, he obviously wasn’t ready to completely give up the bottle yet (until this past week, that is!)… and ultimately, I think that is what it comes down to for most, if not all children: being ready for and comfortable with the transition.
We had tried just completely hiding the bottles before, but that hadn’t worked; and he’d just have an ear-piercing tantrum and dissolve into a sea of briny tears with his face puckered up like an angry red prune if we didn’t acquiesce to his demands. This week, I tried it again: I washed and sanitized his bottles, then hid them in an area completely out of his wide-eyed line of site… and he didn’t whine or cry, not even once, for a bottle instead of a sippy cup. I guess at this point, he’s gotten comfortable enough with the sippy that when he thought in his head, “Where’s my bottle?” he immediately said to himself, “Nah, who needs it! I’ve got my sippy cup.”
We mothers are always bombarded with well-meaning advice and strict developmental guidelines and charts and…. well, of course it’s necessary to be aware of such guidelines to monitor for any possible/potential developmental issues, it’s also important to keep in mind that each child will develop at his or her own pace. Oh, and if it’s something that really concerns you, make sure to ask your pediatrician or a specialist/therapist in your area of concern… and not just the self-proclaimed “baby expert” because, well, that “expert” may be an expert on the babies she’s seen thus far, but does that mean she’s an expert on yours? Basically, gather as much information as you can from all reliable sources, but when in doubt, or for clarification, I’m of the opinion that nothing beats the information you can get from a few (I lean towards second opinions) learned and reputable professionals.
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