Peanut is now weaned from the bottle and exclusively using a sippy cup! What, you say? Did I accidentally have the prior post in a queue and it didn't posted in a timely manner? Nope... Less than 12 hours after my blog post, I found the trick to weaning tough to wean children off the bottle... Leave them with Daddy for the evening!
I had an eye appointment last night (because I'm blind as a bat and have to stringently go to my yearly appointments to get new contacts) and Daddy came home from work a bit early to watch the girls while I had my eyes checked. During my 2 hour appointment, during daddy boot camp, Natalie magically decided she was a sippy cup baby and gave in on her non-sippy cup using stance.
Today, she has been a totally different child! Very few instances of crying (and the weeks prior to this would be crying spurt after crying spurt), she is happily using the sippy cup and I even noticed she seemed more independent when I picked her up at the gym child care today as well! (She normally would be on the little "baby" side in a swing or playing after they had to console her from a crying spurt, today she was on the "big kid" side happily playing with toys even after my hour long Zumba class!)
So what I have learned from this instance was...
1) Keep trying!! Getting to where you want to be could be just around the corner!
2) Sometimes a little tough love might be best instances of weaning... I was too soon to give in and get a bottle (either with milk in the beginning or with water at the end) to put a stop to the crying.
3) If you must use the bottle while trying to wean your little one off of it, try the cutting an "X" in the top of it! It could be sheer coincidence... but she might have also gotten so fed up with the bottle not working that she turned to the sippy!
4) Out of sight, out of mind... one thing that my husband mentioned he did differently was that his "emergency" bottle with water on it (yes, he had one - but never had to use it) was out of Peanut's line of sight. I suspect she had always been able to catch a glimpse of the one I had on hand and knew it was there as a safety net.
5) When they open their mouth while in the high chair, stick the sippy cup in it. Repeat, repeat, repeat. When we had gotten into the depths of weaning, I tried this - but gave up too easily. I would "repeat, repeat", and finally give in - getting the bottle with water. My husband just kept doing this over and over... and it is what he felt finally got her to just decide to do it on her own!
6) Once it "clicks" with them - ditch the bottle forever! My husband mentioned that Peanut had that "a-ha!" lightbulb look and just started drinking the whole sippy cup. Once they have that moment, you know there is no turning back. All of our bottles were put in our basement last night.
7) And last... but definitely not least. It never hurts to let someone else have a try at it! A mere 2 hours with Daddy, and Natalie was bottle weaned...
... I can't wait to see what he can do with potty training Cupcake! ;)
(Reservations at Daddy boot camp are currently being made!)
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