My wife and I fully admit we procrastinated on weaning Maddie off the bottle. Maddie loves her bottle of milk. She typically drinks 30 oz. a day, one bottle in the morning after breakfast, then one around lunchtime til her afternoon nap and her last is later in the day sometime before bedtime, never all at once but intermittently as the day progresses. She usually watches TV and sits on the couch, peacefully without a care in the world and it gives me a few moments to do something, laundry, dishes or check email. It was a good albeit faulty system and we knew it had to end. We got only negative feedback from pediatricians and not anyone else but seeing that all our peers with young kids Maddie’s age are either weaning now or are completely on cups, we felt some pressure.
We tried coaxing her to milk in a sippy cup or Dixie cup or even character-licensed cups but milk is only out of her bottles. She drinks juice out of any other receptacle but milk is only from the bottle. In the recent weeks she has been drinking less milk (down to about 1 1/2 or 2 bottles) probably due to us nagging her about drinking milk from a cup. I fully believe she was more or less weaning herself from the bottles. She could have also been humoring us for a short-while and then back to 3 full bottles. She’s crafty that way.
We had a plan after she turned 2. We would tell her that this such date on the calendar we would throw away the bottles. And we would X out each day leading up to the day. We started on a Sunday and by Wednesday she and I would throw out the bottles together. I choose a midweek day because I was foreseeing her cold turkey taking a nasty turn Thursday and Friday and perhaps by Saturday she’d be in a better state of mind. Plus my wife would be home and help the situation.
But…Maddie got a cold on Sunday. So both me and the wife said we’d postpone the cold turkey until she got better. Well the cold turned into an ear infection by Friday and she was in some pain as you can imagine. Saturday and Sunday she wasn’t in much pain at all with the medication.
But…Sunday morning I come out of the bathroom and Maddie’s crying. My wife tells me she told Maddie NO MORE bottles. NEVER! I was a bit taken aback as you can imagine. A little betrayed if that’s the right word but definitely angry at her for not consulting me on this (I was only taking a dump in the other room—She couldn’t wait to ask me? At least ask me through the door for chrissakes!). Well anyway for the main reason that this needed to be done and she fired the first shot let’s fight the battle out and see what happens. (me and the wife had a little “chat” afterwards) Much to my surprise my wife didn’t really think things through planning-wise and was just shooting from the hip. So we had to improvise this new plan. Also surprisingly Maddie didn’t kick and scream as much as we thought she would. We have seen her even-keel temperament and her easily adaptable attitude before but you just never know how your kid will react especially to something held on to for so long and for so dear.
So no bottle the whole morning and afternoon up til her nap. After her nap we did the plan of her helping us throw away her own bottles. SHE DID. Without crying. Well from her. I teared up some not because of me missing her little hands holding her bottles as she watches TV but because, here’s my little girl, my pride and joy, acting way beyond her age and accepting the harsh truth. I fully believe she knew what she was doing. She knows what the garbage is and what happens to trash. So she fully knows what is happening to her bottles. Made me even more proud of her. Then we went to Toys R’ Us and spent over $30 bucks on various new sippy cups to help the transition more.
As of this writing it has been 4 days since no bottles. While her attitude is great and she’s not cranky nor spiteful, her intake of milk is virtually nil. Save for some chocolate milk the past couple of days she’s not touching the new sippy cups with regular milk. And although she has only asked for her “baby bottle” a few times she never cried or had a fit when I reminded her that they are gone for good. So she’s handling this better than I expected but I’m hoping by the weekend she takes to the new cups or any cups for that matter. My other fear besides her raving mad about the cold turkey was that she’d cut out milk completely, which was not our intention at all.
So in conclusion, I’m prouder of my little girl. I’m getting over my annoyance with my impatient and double-crossing wife and taking this cold turkey one day at a time. I would have preferred it until she was healthy and sticking to the original plan we conceived but so far it looks like it’s working out. But if it hadn’t than I’d be one really pissed off Poppa Penguin.
PS: Normally my wife is a wonderful, loving, responsible mother to Maddie every day. She just made this one “little” booboo. She has since apologized and has been upset at her actions all week and I fully forgive her. MWAH!
Poppa Penguin 