Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Another Transition

I am currently in the process of moving LP to cups instead of bottles. This is requiring a lot of patience and tough love. When I went to the pediatrician for LP's one-year check up, she asked if baby girl was drinking from cups. I was just happy to have her weaned! But the doctor is right, we don't want to be having the conversation about moving her to a cup when LP is two.

Last week, on the days she was home with me, I started giving her milk in a sippy cup while she ate and when she was done eating, I would try to get her to drink from the cup. She would typically only drink an ounce or so. I would then pour the rest of the milk into a bottle and hand it back to her; she would drain the bottle.

This week I started only giving LP milk in a sippy cup during the day. If she drinks it, excellent; if she doesn't, fine. This is horrible from a mommy perspective, especially since it is growing increasingly warm out. I don't want my little buggaboo to be thirsty, but I can see any other way. Before bed I still give her a bottle with her last milk of the day. I am trying to figure out if she is gaming me, holding out to drink until she gets her bottle at night. Next week we go all cup all the time.

Any one else have experience with this? Any tried and true methods for getting babies to cups?

1 comment:

Molly said...

Ned was still on a bottle when he was 18 months old, as well as a pacifier, so I just did it cold turkey with both at different times. It took a couple of days for each, but he got over it and now I am sure I will have a hard time getting him off the sippy cup and on to a regular cup! It worked for me just to go cold turkey because at the end of the day, when they realize that they either have to drink it out of the cup or not at all, they would rather drink it out of the cup!

I did the same thing more or less with potty training - no pull ups, just from diapers to pants and yes, you have to put up with the accidents, but in a six week period he only wet the bed twice and is usually dry the whole night. Pull ups are just like diapers so I don't really see the point.

Good luck with it all, it is hard when you have to make changes and work at the same time!!