UPDATE - Getting rid of the bottle

A drinking milk from a glass.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about getting rid of the bottle. You can read it here. I thought it was time I gave an update. All the bottles and sippy cups have been packed up. They are now in a box located in our shed at our block of land, which is approximately 24.2 km or a 25 minute drive away.

The first week was the hardest. G put up a fight, she started drinking out of the small milk cartons I gave her, but she must have suspected it was linked to the lack of bottles, so she gave up drinking from the cartons as well. So for the first two weeks there was no drinking of milk.

Magically on the third week G realised there would be no more bottles. She finally stopped playing or ignoring her glass of milk, picked it up and drank from the glass. I always knew she was capable, it was a matter of choice. Once I took the options way she showed that she could and would drink milk from a glass.

I have however just jumped ahead. There were other things I did as well. As I stated in my previous post, our dinner time, bath time, outside play time, bedtime reading and going to bed is all changed. Here's what happened.
  

Previous Rhythm	Current Rhythm
Wake Up	Wake up
Breakfast	Breakfast
Dressed/Brush teeth	Bath/Shower time
Outside play/outing	Dressed
Snack	Inside Play/Outing
Inside play	Snack
Lunch	Lunch
Reading	Reading
Nap	Nap
Snack	Activity (baking, drawing, painting,)
Activity (Baking, drawing, painting)	Snack
TV (30 minutes)	TV (30 minutes)
Dinner	Outside Play/walk/ Dinner Prep
Bath ti	Dinner
Bottle	Reading
Reading	Wash face, hands, brush teeth and get ready for bed
Bed	Bed

The most important change was moving bath time from the evening to the morning. The second important change was changing outside play from the morning to the afternoon. I changed outside play to the afternoon as it is getting hotter here and the yard is bathed in sun in the morning. In the afternoon it tends to be cooler and there is more shaded cover.

The rhythms above are fluid, most days are like this, but not always. Some days we have commitments and activities that require us to leave the house.  A & G enjoy these outing, but I try to ensure we don't cram it all in the same day or successive days.

 

VIDEO - Under Control

"Mama, I do it myself."

This footage was taken last week when we had finished dinner. We have just finished having our dessert of fruit and yoghurt. A glass tumbler with milk has been provided for A and G.

Just before I started filming, A adding the yogurt to her milk and made a smoothie. I had a moment where I was sure the glass bowl would fall and break. My reaction is instinctive and I try not to do this as it undermines their confidence.

Did you see A tell me off. Yes, telling me off. I think she was telling me she had it under control. She moved the bowl away from the edge after I stop filming. I then asked her to place it in the "pack away container."

Since filming this I have purchased new glasses for them to use. They seem to like larger glasses with grooves on the sides. This makes it easier for them to grip the glass, even when they have  yoghurt hands.

I have another video, it is much longer. I will attempt to up load it in another post.

Getting Rid of the bottle

One of my girls, G,  loves, loves, loves, loves, loves her bottle. She is a bottle addict. If she sees a baby with a bottle in public she cries for it. It's not the milk, it's the bottle she loves. It comforts her. If she wasn't bottle feed I sincerely believe she would be a breast addict.

We have been very successfull at dropping several bottle feeds, except for two. At 12 months the only milk feeds they were having was in the morning when they woke and night time.  I quickly disposed of the morning drink when breakfast was left uneaten regardless of what time they had the bottle or breakfast. I swapped  milk for cheese and a drink of water. Breakfast included cereal (with milk) and at snack time yoghurt. This seemed to work well for us. Breakfast was now consumed. Hooray for us!

You will note I wrote seemed..... well my bottle addict was not going to give up that easily.  At 9am every morning (before snack time) the crying would begin, followed by rolling around on the floor. Quite frankly, it was embarrassing and horrifying to watch my child melt down over a bottle. I tried giving the yoghurt snack just before 9am..... to no avail. Was I surprised? No. The same child also loved her dummy as well, which disappeared at 6 months.

My bottle addict showed an astounding amount of fortitude and was able to maintain what I call a bottle tantrum for over an hour...... she showed more stamina than I did. When her sibling joined in just for the fun of it I caved in. In the end, she (and her sibling, because she wasn't going to be left out) got her bottle, a small one, with 50 mls of milk. Not enough according to her, but tough there would be no additional day time milk drinks provided in a bottle.  A cup, a glass or any other drinking vessel yes, but not a bottle. Yes, this internal dialogue with myself made me feel better.

How did this work for us? My bottle addict refuses to drink milk from a cup, glass or sippy cup. She spills it, she plays with it and she spits it out. We have had a show down, her and I.... so far I've managed to hold out. She has yet to notice her dairy intake has increased.

Fast forward to today. The day bottle is gone. Instead they sometimes receive a small carton of Devondale Full Cream Long Life Milk after their mid morning or afternoon snack. Often they don't drink all their milk so it goes back in the fridge. I have in the past tried providing a small milk drink with their meal. This has not worked out well for us. It has ended with milk been spilt or thrown. This only happens when the beverage provided is milk. It never happens with water.

My bottle addict is enthralled by the carton, struggles with drinking from the straw, but she is persevering. She hasn't noticed (yet) the bottle is gone.

The only down side, the straw doesn't come with the 150 ml carton. I have spare straws in the pantry for the small cartons

I'm not concerned about their dairy intake. They are mostly good eaters and consume enough dairy products during the day.  I just want the bottles gone. Her bottle addiction is unfortunately holding back her sister, who was ready to give up bottles months ago.

One of the challenge of raising twins is the question of sameness. I find what one has the other one wants, so having one a drink from a cup while her sister drinks out of a bottle was only going to ended in tears. How do I know? Well I gave it a try.

In my internal dialogue with myself I have rationalised, saying G isn't ready to give up the bottle. The truth is she may never be ready. She loves her bottle that much. I gave myself until they were 15 months, to come up with a strategy and to start getting rid of all bottles. It is time. We now have a bad case of bottle theft and milk gorging happening in the evenings.

A & G have proven that they do not need a night time bottle to sleep through the night. I'm about to revamp their whole night time routine which will involve a change to our evening activities. Dinner time, bath time, outside play time, bedtime reading and going to bed is all about to change. In the past I have found a complete change in the way we do things works better for us than a gradual change.

As a parent I have to make tough decisions which cause short term unpleasantness for me, my husband, our home life and our children.  This feels like one of  those decisions. I know there could be tears, tantrums and sleepless nights, or it could all be an anticlimactic non event. Here's hoping. One thing I do know it is time to be the parent, make the decision and follow through. Six months from now I know this will be a faded memory.

10 months old and self feeding

A, eating with her spoon

A & G turned 10 months yesterday and we have been moving away from me feeding them mush food. We use a combination of Baby Led Weaning and Montessori. I have committed to providing more opportunities for A & G to feed themselves mushy foods.What a mess and noisy affair as they like to make clucking and sucking noises when they eat.

For breakfast they have either porridge, omelet, bircher muesli and/or toast. For snacks, they have one of the following Cruskett with avocado, crackers and cheese, yogurt and fruit. I try to have  seasonal fruit available for them. At they moment they love strawberries. But the strawberry must be whole and the green leafy part must be left on the strawberry or they will not eat it.

Lunch usually starts with finger food followed by a mush meal which I was feeding to them (if they were in the mood for me to feed them), if not more finger food.

Dinner is served at the table as a family (recent change). Mainly finger food, with a side serve of vegetables or salad. They like salads, its very interesting to look at, bits of the salad taste familar, like carrots, pear, and sweet potatoes.

In the last week I have made an concerted effort to have dinner ready for everyone at an appointed time (hence the slow cooker.) Dinner is served at the big table and everyone eats together. It has been a process of  trial and error to find the right time to eat as a family. So far 5:30 pm is working for us.

A is a professional at using a spoon and whilst most of it ends up on her or on the floor she enjoys her food (see picture). G on the other hand is still waving her spoon around, her preference is to use her hands and when it comes to mush food, she either dumps it on the ground or wears it.

When I see how much mess two little people can created, I tell myself, long after the mess has been cleared we will only have memories and photos to show for these moments.