Topic: Transition to a Cup
THE CHALLENGE: Switching our 18-month old to a sippy cup from a bottle
WHAT WORKED FOR US: Giving our 18-month-old some space; not pushing the cup at her but letting her take it at any point during the meal; walking away from the table long enough for her to realize she wasn't being monitored or forced to take the cup
DETAILED EXPLANATION:
Our little girl is notoriously stubborn. A few months ago when we switched her to whole milk from formula, she became constipated and went on a drinking strike. For a day and a half, she refused to drink anything, the end result of which was that she was rapidly becoming dehydrated. The more we pushed the bottle at her, the more she refused it. When her grandfather suggested we simply place it by her side and then back away for a while, we were skeptical but tried it. Sure enough, she took some sips and began drinking again.
Well, fast-forward a few months (she's now 18 months) and though we'd been advised to switch her to cup drinking at around a year, we were now ready to make the leap. Of course, when we did, no surprise, she refused to drink anything but a few sips a day. It took us about a week to remember that to get her to drink from a sippy cup, we needed to do something counter-intuitive: give her room to decide for herself whether to take it.
So, when I left the cup on her tray and walked over to the sink to start prepping some dishes for the dishwasher, what did she do? She grabbed the cup and began slurping through its straw!
