Couple of months before Zoe turned three, we've been conditioning her mind that she won't be drinking milk from a bottle anymore because she's already a big girl. When she celebrated her 3rd birthday, we still couldn't get round to weaning her off the bottle because my husband felt really bad about it.
Well guess what. Yesterday, my bestfriend who lives in New Jersey messaged me with an idea on how to wean Zoe off the bottle. Before we took an afternoon nap, I told Zoe that we will go to the mall and buy any toy that she liked but we will have to use her milk bottles to pay for them. She pondered on it for a while and said 'I want to buy a xylophone'. We had a little talk about the consequences and she agreed.
At the toy store, it took her almost 2 hours to decide on a Barbie piano, a Little Tikes xylophone, and a couple of Play Doh sets. In the end, we got her a mini-fridge Play Doh set, a cheaper xylophone, and a Disney Princess cup. I told her that it's very important to choose the right cup that we she will use to drink her milk from and we let her choose the cup that she liked. Before we went to the cashier, she opened the backpack to say goodbye to her bottles. It broke my heart but I knew we were doing the right thing. She counted all 13 bottles at the cashier and was very happy to get her toys. Of course she didn't know that her dad came back to get the bottles :P
At bedtime, she drank milk from her cup but when she was about to sleep, she suddenly blurted out 'I want..(milk)'. She literally stopped herself from finishing her sentence. She wailed for about 15 minutes before she finally fell asleep. At around 230AM, she woke up and asked for milk. We had to tell her that her bottles are gone and we asked if she wanted to drink it from her cup. She cried for about an hour and Dan had to carry her to comfort her. It was really heartbreaking to take something away from her but we felt that it was really time.
so sad.. so heartbreaking talaga..
ReplyDelete^True sis. Sabe ko nga kay hubby, kame din kelangan mag-wean kase parang mas emotional pakame kesa sa anak namin hehe
ReplyDeleteI wish I could do that to Amber sis. Ang plan ko before the year ends, wala na rin bottles sa kwarto. Kahit madaling araw nahingi ng milk eh. Naku sana kayanin ko.
ReplyDelete^Brendz, si Zoe ganyan, as in gumisiging ng madaling araw to ask for milk kaya si hubby ayaw nya pa dapat i-wean kase feeling nya nagugutom. I think naman na comfort nurser lang sya talaga and she turned on her bottles when we weaned her off her binky. 3rd day na namin today, yung past 2 nights umiiyak sya sa gabi pero last night hinde na masyado. Nare-remember nya kase na pinagbili nga namin ng toys nya yung bottles nya hehe
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely brilliant idea! Will try this with my daughter...She's already four and she doesn't drink milk from a bottle naman pero she has this favorite favorite sippy cup na sira sira na nga yung mismong silicone tip (tip ba tawag dun? :D I know you get the idea though), pero she only wants to drink milk from there. We already bought her a couple of nice glasses/cups that she chose, pero dun pa din sya sa favorite nya. Pero hmmm, with your method, parang mas magiging willing sya, kasi she'll know she'll get toys when she 'trades in' her favorite sippy cup e. :D
ReplyDelete^Tin, I think your daughter's like mine na comfort na lang ang hinahanap. I think what worked well for us was that she decided kase on her own na she liked the toys kaya kinaya nya ang trade off hahaha. Give it 2-3 days, yun din ang estimated time ko for my daughter and on the 3rd night ok na kame :)
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