For my toddler son, his security blanket is not a binky, nor a woobie, but a B-O-T-T-L-E. Please, I can’t even say the word out loud in front of him, cause he will want his “fix”.
While he loves drinking water out of a sippy cup, drinking milk from one is a challenge. His Pediatrician is pretty sterned about me weaning the bottle, but she doesn’t know the tantrums and crying spells that I experience if he doesn’t get his mid afternoon/night bottle feedings. However, over the weekend, I had a “mommy intervention” and learned that I may be causing him harm than good.
On Saturday, I took Lil B to an early speech class just to see how he is progressing for a child his age. Five minutes into the class, Lil B was showing off his fine motor and gross motor skills. With my ego pumped, I asked myself “what am I doing here again?” well, soon after asking that question, my ego was immediately deflated when the instructor asked me if my son was still drinking from a bottle. Sheepishly, I said yes. That’s when the intervention began. She mentioned that any delay of speech and any future speech issues can be caused with the use of drinking from a bottle, sippy cups or the use of a pacifier. The reasoning was because drinking from a bottle/sippy cup fails to engage the lips and tongue in a way to develop more advanced speech patterns. Say no more!!
My hubby and I immediately went out and picked up a few spill proof straw cups, a bottle of wine, and a 12 pack of beer – please this was going to be a loooonnngg day! Since we kept him busy throughout the day he was able to fall asleep without asking for a bottle. Yay, issue diverted….however bedtime was readily approaching and that we knew would be a challenge. We tried a straw cup — that was tossed out of the crib. Next up was a sippy cup with a nipple-like top – no fooling him with that one. Finally after nearly 90 minutes we gave him a bottle, but only with one ounce of milk – he fell asleep soon after.
So after day one we have determined this won’t be a quick process, but it is something that we need to be strong about. Out of sight, out of mind, they say, so hiding a few bottles and throwing away most just might make this process work. I hope! More to come…stay tuned!
Are you going through a similar situation? Did you get a “mommy intervention”? Do you have some tips or suggestion that you feel may work? Would love to hear from you.
Visiting from LBS and I’m so glad I did!
Originally, I was going to post “Who cares when you wean him?” But then, I read further. I had no idea that a bottle would cause issues with speech development. That makes sense since my 6 year old had trouble weaning from the bottle and now she has trouble with her R’s and L’s. However, my 10 year was exclusively breastfed and went to a sippy cup with ease and had no issues with speech. Very interesting! I’ll be picking up some straw sippy cups for my son ASAP!
my son is addicted to his sippy’s. I’ll be slowly getting rid of those. Just to be safe!
Good Luck!! I say go Cold Turkey and deal with it all at once! You keep sipping your wine and beer and he’ll forget about his bottle pretty quickly. You’ll be surprised how quickly kids adapt. 😉 Of course, I can say that because I’m way out of that phase now! LOL I really do wish you Good Luck. I know it seems like it’s going to be hard and last forever, but pretty soon, this will just be a “blip” on the screen of motherhood. stopping by from vB MTR!