On The Wagon

I'm one of those no-nonsense kind of moms.

My kid turns one, and we are off the bottle. And no more formula too.

Withdrawal symptoms can be troublesome, so I usually go somewhat cold turkey.

Sounds a little harsh I know, but it's all based on my theory that my child won't miss something if he can't see it. There is only so long this theory can be applied, and in my experience it is mostly before their 2nd birthday, and in some cases before their 1st.

I have weened the pacifiers before their 1st birthdays; actually before they were 9 months old. So far I have been 3 for 3 on the binkies.

I ween the bottles at their first birthdays; again, 3 for 3.

There is one thing that I will never ween my children from, and that's the transitional object. For that, I have no timeline. They can snuggle with their favorite animal or blanket (daughter 1: Bunny, daughter 2: Pierre the pig, son: blanket) until they go off to college. Or they can take it with them to the dorm, I really don't care. To me, snuggling is THAT important.

But sucking on things? Not so important. Don't get me wrong; this is VERY important as a newborn and infant. But, in my experience, it loses it's ability to soothe them somewhere around that 9 or 10 month old age. That's when it becomes a habit. And THAT'S when it becomes much too hard to take something away.

Hence why we go completely bottle-less in under 24 hours. If he sees a bottle, he'll cry and whine and I will give in. But if he doesn't see one, his withdrawal symptoms are much more manageable. Nothing that a little patience and perserverence can't solve.

Although there is a little trickery involved.

My son used to hit the juice pretty hard on the bottle. He'd suck that thing dry and then keep at it, hoping to get a few more drops out that may have been lodged in a crevice somewhere. In fact, he's been known to go to the bottle drawer (within his reach) and take them out and suck on them completely empty.

So I first gave him his formula in a sippy cup a few days ago. Once he figured out what was in there, he went at it. But he was lacking the vigor of his bottle days. So be it.

That was the official beginning of the end. Then I started mixing milk in with his formula. I would have done that longer, but I ran out of formula. And with groceries costing us an arm, a leg and an eyeball these days, I wasn't about to buy more.

So there went the formula.

When I gave him just straight up cold milk in his sippy cup, he proceeded to throw it overboard from his high chair without even tasting it.

So I picked it up and shook it in front of him (much like I did with formula).

This invoked quite a curiousity, so he took a swig.

Nope, still not formula, so it went for a high dive again.

Then I went for the double play; I microwaved it and then shook it.

This invoked a lot more swigs, but it still eventually took a plunge overboard.

So be it.

I kept that cup around for the next hour, offering it to him as he played. And sure enough, he finished it eventually.

Now I have the top rack of my dishwasher back, and I couldn't be happier.

Persistence always pays off.