Sippy Cup Part IV

Once Anna mastered the sippy cup without the valve, I put it back in. This meant that she had to suck on the spout to get anything rather than simply pour the liquid into her mouth. Her stubborn refusal to use the cup came back and I felt so defeated. Here I had finally gotten her to use a cup rather than a bottle for juice and here we were again at the beginning with her flat out refusal to try the cup again.

I wanted to take the valve out again, but the speech therapist said that even though it was a step in the right direction having her use the cup without the valve, it was better to put it back in since the sucking would strengthen her mouth and tongue. I was concerned that I would turn Anna off to the whole cup 'thing' altogether but decided to tough it out.

Now that Anna had at least been open to playing with the cup and finally putting it in her mouth, Pam said she would get it with a little practice. And she was right. As soon as Pam left, I tried the tough love approach and spent about fifteen minutes forcing her to put it in her mouth so I could close her mouth around the spout and try and assist her until she successfully drank from it. I figured once she was successful, she wouldn't be so frustrated and would be more willing to try again. But after fifteen minutes of torture(!), I feared Anna would walk away from the experience hating not only her cup but me as well.

So since dinner was upon us, I decided to use Anna's love of food in my favor. Before receiving her next helping of something or her next 'course', she had to take a couple of sips from her cup. If I was happy with the way she held it and how she placed it in her mouth, she could have more. The first night she reluctantly took the required number of sips in order to continue her dinner. And about a half an inch of juice disappeared. Not much, but a start!

I was hoping after two or three meals, she'd get the hang of the cup and willingly drink when thirst struck. But the next couple of days didn't show the improvement I was hoping for. Even when she did drink, she did it so quickly, it was hard to believe she got anything from it. And her dislike of the cup was discouraging - she said 'no' as soon as I took it out of the refrigerator and would push it to the furthest spot on the table when I placed it next to her bowl. Not to mention the stand offs. At least the first couple of times she did what I said, albeit reluctantly, and we moved on. But the third, fourth and fifth meals lasted a long time as I waited for Anna to finally give in and drink in order to move on with her meal. She's stubborn but not as stubborn as her mother!

After about 5/6 days, my perseverance paid off. Finally, Anna surrendered a bit on Tuesday when we had lunch with Jen and Julia at a local bagel place. She must have really worked up an appetite and thirst from camp that morning. Plus, it probably didn't hurt that she wanted to look like a big girl in front of her friend. I still had to ask her to drink, but she did it quickly and took nice long gulps. I think she may have even initiated a sip or two - I was so pleased! And last night when we had dinner with Anthony, she picked up the cup and walked around with it taking sips along the way. She must have wanted to impress this infrequent visitor!

So I'm satisfied that she can definitely drink from the cup even though she still refuses to drink milk out of it. First things first, right?! We're going away this weekend so I'm just pleased that I can bring a sippy cup to the party rather than a bottle - that was beginning to get embarrassing!