Bottle v. Sippy Cup; the Born Free Resolution

After Ivan had spent most of Sunday’s playgroup playground time with a bottle dangling out of his mouth, I realized that every photo I have of him at a social event, he’s attached to the bottle. He does look awfully cute, clutching his bottle and exploring things……but he seems to be the only kid doing that. Granted, many kids his age are still addicted to pacifiers (two of the five in the playgroup), something he discarded on his own when he was about 9 months and I never brought it out again. However, I think the bottle had started to fill in the pacifier gap at some point….

So that observation, coupled with the fact that I’m totally freaked out about the looming prospect of lifetime of rotten teeth because he was on the bottle for too long, made me put my foot down.

I went out and bought a Born Free Sippy cup, which is apparently very close to the bottle, and a Nubby sippy cup with a straw (since he hasn’t tried mastering the straw yet.)

On Sunday evening, after the bath, I presented him with milk in both containers (he had gnawed on the water-filled Nubby sippy cup earlier in the afternoon and was content with it). A temper tantrum ensued. He wouldn’t have anything to do with either of us, but proceeded to cry his little eyes out while violently throwing the sippy cup on the floor over and over again.

The whole tantrum must have lasted 15, 20 minutes at the most. But it felt like an eternity, especially when he was giving us these looks of “how could you do this to me.”

As Andy jokedn “milk, milk everywhere but not a bottle to drink.”

Good thing Andy was there with me; otherwise, I would’ve given in and brought out the bottle.

While Ivan was crying, I had started second guessing myself. Am I doing the right thing? Will more bottle time really hurt him?

I heard my parents' disapproving voices in my head. I got angry at them and Andy, feeling they always undermine my resolutions, thinking back to the summer when I had almost fully converted him to a sippy cup. I remembered that random woman in the park I saw in the spring who told me that even 20+ years later, she regretted taking her son off the bottle too early. Because he’s a baby only once.

But the sippy cup transition had to happen sooner or later. And I realized that the longer we waited, the more difficult it would be.

After 15 minutes of crying, Ivan gave in, he must have been exhausted, and took the Born Free sippy cup. And that was the end of it. He climbed up on the bed with us and cuddled like he had done on previous nights.

He fell a sleep with the sippy cup without a problem. I have it back to him around 11 p.m. (I had inadvertently woken him up to take off the fleece pajamas he had me put on him). He took it again in the morning.

Monday night was the same story. No problem with the Born Free sippy cup. (Although I can’t really tell what’s the big difference between a Born Free sippy cup to and a nipple. They seem rather similar, but I won't bother pondering this one.)

On Tuesday, I got really sad at work. Is this really it? Have I succeeded? Another milestone achieved? Is the bottle saga over? Can I pack up the Avent bottles and nipples? It made me sad. My little baby is transforming into a boy with each passing day, making me yearn to stop the time and enjoy him as a baby as much as possible.

I had been so focused on prospect of rotten teeth and the stubbornness with which he clung to the bottle and the annoyance at my parents and Andy, that I never stopped to ponder the significance of taking the bottle away.

Now, it’s done. I think it’s done. I almost feel like bringing the bottle back out and giving it to him. But that wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

Just like the end of breastfeeding hit me hard, this is starting to hit me hard as well.