War is being waged in my home. Ruby is NOT impressed with her new eating/sippy cup routine and I am learning what a nasty little temper she has.
When I dropped her off at daycare yesterday I told "P" of the new routine. She was all for trying it out. But when I went to pick Ruby up she told me that Ruby would NOT take her milk from the sippy cup. And she wouldn't eat her carrots/beans/potatoes that I sent. No big surprise there, but she did eat some homemade rice pudding that P made and a little cheese and some animal crackers. Not great, but not terrible.
Ruby and I hung out and played for a bit when we got home and then I made myself a lowfat wrap to snack on before dinner because I was VERY hungry. Well wouldn't you know it, the conniving little shit wanted to eat half my wrap. Well hell, if she wants to eat it I'm not stopping her. I will go hungry if it means she's eating something.
Tara: 1
Ruby: 0
Later, she refused the dinner I made her - which I thought she'd love. And when I say "refused" I mean she was taking swings at me as I was trying to put a bite in her mouth and when I managed to get a chunk in her little yap, she gave me the death stare and dug it out of her mouth and flung it against the wall.... right next to the place where I was banging my head. This went on until I had to walk away and let her freak out for a few minute in her highchair while I hid in the bathroom and cried.
Tara: 1
Ruby: 1
She then got to the point where she was so hungry she was completely delirious and out of control, crying and whining and being nasty (biting and hitting). There is absoluteley ZERO chance of getting any solid food in her at this point.
So I filled up her sippy cup with warm milk and offered it to her. And that's when our big battle began. She started to drink and then realized it was milk so she gave me the death stare again and flung the cup. Then she cried because she wanted a bottle. I offered her the cup again and she flung it again, then she grabbed it and tried to pour it out in between the cracks of the couch (that will smell great later). I gave it to her while holding it myself and she hit it and tried to hit me. Then she took off and did a few laps around the living room all the while crying and giving me the most bitter, dirty looks I have ever seen the child give. She'd stop in front of me once a lap and I'd try the milk again and it only pissed her off more. (No wonder "P" said the sippy cup "didn't work"). After about 5 or 6 laps around the room, she took a little bit of a drink from it. Couple more laps of tantrum throwing and I got her to sit in my lap and I leaned her back a bit like she was getting a bottle and the little bugger drank every last drop of milk in that god forsaken sippy cup. I have 7 new grey hairs and 2 new wrinkles on my face, but I got it to happen.
Tara: 2
Ruby: 1
I then got her to eat some yogurt with mashed raspberries in it (yay) before I sent her to bed with a bottle (boo).
Tara: 3
Ruby: 2
We tried to add some home made oatmeal to her breakfast this morning and she gave the look of having just been poisoned and tried to scrape any oatmeal that made it into her mouth off of her tongue.
Tara: 3
Ruby: 3
What??? We're tied? Then why does it feel like I'm getting my ass kicked and losing terribly??? I want to throw in the towel and let her drink from a bottle until she's 20 and can make her own decisions...
2 comments:
Granted I have no experience with such matters, but here are my thoughts. Maybe she's just not quite ready. Is it really the end of the world to let her keep getting a lot of her calories from milk/formula? I know she's small but she seems to be thriving...
Also, if she wants to eat your food, that might be part of the answer. Maybe it's that she sees you eating it? So daycare might not be the place she ends up eating the most for a while.
Ok, like I said, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I guess I just tend to subscribe to following a baby's lead with food stuff.
Hope it's not too much assvice. And hope there will be peace chez vous very soon!
I was going to say the same thing as annacylopedia. We did not go cold turkey with O when we transitioned him from the bottle to the sippy. We kept dropping bottles - the ones before naptime went first, then the morning bottle altogether. We did experiment with different sippy cups - the one he liked best was the straw Nuby one. We got him drinking milk out of that, then one night we gave him the straw sippy at bedtime and he didn't complain. We put away the bottles that day. :)
I don't know what kind of sippy you're using, but we DID have to experiment to find the one O liked best. I will say that you might have luck with the starter Nuby one - with the smooshable top, it's like a bottle, really. Then you can tell her it's a "new bottle" and use that for milk and keep using the sippy you're currently using for water just for water.
The other thing - some kids just don't like purees or baby food. If Ruby seems to like what you're eating, then maybe she's ready for the same food you eat. Not sure if you can structure your meals so that she can eat with you, but that seemed to work, so keep trying it.
One thing to remember, too. Ruby's been going through some pretty big transitions. You're back at work. She's getting used to a new daycare provider. It may be that she has an attachment to her bottles, in which case it's going to take a little time for her to transition away from them.
Just my two cents. Hope there's some assvice in here that might help, just a bit. And good luck. She WILL eventually not drink from a bottle. She won't do this forever.
xxx
Post a Comment