Tuesday, April 8, 2008

:: Do They Even Make Drinkable String Cheese? ::

Oh,  he'll play with them, but try to put that cup to his lips and you\'ll get two very stiff arms and a lot of whining.

Oh, he'll play with it, but just you try to put that cup to his lips.

Please, other moms out there, tell me that you occasionally catch yourself stressing over something completely ridiculous and that you laugh at yourself only to find yourself stressing about the exact same thing again later in the day. Come on, please?

Around here lately the ridiculous and pointless stressor is the sippie cup. Sure, it may look like an innocuous little plastic cup with a lid that has a small hole in it for seemingly yummy things like formula and half-apple-juice to come out of. Really, though, it's an exquisitely designed baby torture device that turns likable liquids into vile, vile poison. At least that's what Evan would have you think.

Thing is? He's outgrowing the bottle -- doesn't want to sit still for it anymore, prefers to look around instead of sucking, plays with the nipple with his tongue instead of drinking -- and even though cups were OK a couple of months ago they are suddenly bad bad bad bad bad.

If Evan could talk, I mean if he could talk with adult human words, I think he'd say something like this: "Stupid cups. I hate you and your stupid cups. You're stupid and so is that cup and I am not going to drink from it even if you put liquid sugar in it. You could put string cheese in that cup and I would not drink it. And I love string cheese. That's how lame your stupid lame cup is."

Usually, I'm a very relaxed "hey, OK, apparently you're not ready yet" kind of mom. Normal me would take the cup and hide it for a few weeks and try again later. Why am I letting this cup get to me?

Stupid stupid cup.

The current really-good-reason (so says my brain as justification for getting all stressy and stupid) is that we had our first fever here last night (which went away today and returned at bedtime. Have you heard of this, this bedtime fever? I've heard of right-before-school fevers and thermometer-to-the-lightbulb fevers but never bedtime fevers. Oh, I know. I'm joking.) and the doc (over the phone -- why doesn't my doctor answer questions about colds over the phone? why???) said he's okay as long as he's still drinking and still playing. Give him plenty of fluids.

Fluids. Interesting. You mean, like, from a cup??? So now I've spent small but significant chunks of the last two days trying to come up with new cup strategies. I plot out my next cup moves. I try sneak attacks. I introduce juice for the sole purpose of tricking Evan into liking his cup. It's so dumb. Worse, I know it's dumb and yet I continue to do it. I continue because every once in a while I sneak a sip through the super-tight, two-handed, two-lipped, stiff-armed mouth security and he drinks it and everything is fine for one silly minute.

But you know you're being really really ridiculous when you hear yourself telling your husband over the phone, "I'm at my wit's end over this sippie cup."

Put the cup down. Walk away slowly. Everything will be fine in a few weeks.

8 comments:

Deneese April 8, 2008 at 6:51 PM  

You could try a syringe to give him fluids. He might find that novel and fun. And Charlotte started with a straw very early and really only prefers to take liquids that way now. We pretty much skipped the sippy cup and bypassing it for a straw and cup. A cup that is almost always clenched tightly in one of our adult hands.

Christina April 8, 2008 at 7:22 PM  

Having gone through this, I can tell you it will all be OK. You may have to give him his fluids in a bottle, a straw cup, or let him try sipping out of a regular cup (some kids love it), but he will drink if he's thirsty. I promise. Nearly every kid will drink when thirsty.

It took a long time to get Cordy to a sippy cup, and now we're trying to wean her to a regular cup while teaching Mira about the sippy cup. Cordy didn't start a sippy cup until after one year old - she was stubborn.

And the bedtime fever is totally real. Cordy only runs fevers at night, and by morning they're gone. It's baffling.

Toni April 9, 2008 at 5:17 AM  

I'm with the other two. This too shall pass. He'll drink when he's ready. The straw or a regular cup are good ideas. Sometimes children just want to do what the grownups are doing.

mom April 9, 2008 at 8:05 AM  

I love all of your descriptive phrases! You make me chuckle with happiness :-)

I remember you and Kate thinking that the sippy cup was for pouring liquids out of onto the highchair, or sometimes the floor and then playing with the liquid. A few times, I think the cup sailed right past me across the room. The other ladies are right, when he gets thirsty, he'll drink. Or try it with a straw...they have those sippy cups that when you twist the top the straw pops up, which look like fun.

As far as the fever, Dr. Fox used to tell me not to take a temperature after 5 pm, unless I thought you guys were extremely hot, extremely cold, lethargic, throwing up, etc. He always said that a fever will escalate in the evening, and will usually go down in the morning, if not, deal with it then. He said I'd know if you needed emergency treatment and to just trust my gut. Back then, he said to have you sleep in fewer or lighter clothes, wipe you down with a damp (with water) washcloth, give a little baby Tylenol, and when you got bigger, a Popsicle too. (Because you would be getting the fluids and a little sugar, and would never turn them down.) Call your nurse practitioner today, and see what they recommend for nighttime fevers, so you'll be ready for the next time.

Tanya April 9, 2008 at 8:32 AM  

LOL ... I was just there a few months ago. Please don't do what I did and buy 10 different sippy cups because it won't make a difference!! You will just spend a lot more time trying to find the correct matching lid.

Mere April 9, 2008 at 11:00 AM  

One of Joe's and my biggest fights post-CateandLizzie was over sippy cups. You've got nothin' to worry about. The girls were very slow to get the hang of sippy cups. They also liked the straw cups better. They finally got into cups when I started weaning them from the bottle. Like someone else said, they were thirsty, so they started drinking from the cups. Popsicles are a great idea- they make pedialyte popsicles, too. Or how about jello?

Dharmamama April 9, 2008 at 11:57 AM  

One of the teachers in my sons' preschool said kids didn't need sippy cups - they nurse, then they use a regular cup. They'll spill a lot at first, but will get the hang of it soon.

Yeah, I didn't believe her, either. Seth didn't care for *slow* sippy cups - I had to get the kind with a pretty large flow, or the straw kind. He didn't like having to work for his drink. And, I'm remembering now, he'd take his sippy cup, totally drain it, throw it across the room and belch. Our little frat boy.

Ha! I'm remembering, too, he'd try to nurse *and drink from his sippy cup at the same time*. Umm... no.

Sorry - any opportunity to go down memory lane...

So, yeah - no need to stress. I find it helpful when I'm fretting about something to ask myself what is the worst-case scenario that could happen. So - Evan never, ever uses sippy cups? You know, it's tricky to clean out those little holes, anyway.

Julie April 11, 2008 at 4:28 AM  

Man, you people ROCK! : ) I never thought of popsicles... I sort of want to give Evan one now just to see how he'd react. I also think he'd really like the syringe thing. He loves taking medicine that way. We also tried the straw after you guys recommended it, and he drank from it a few times. Most importantly, he seems to be fairly well hydrated still even though he is STILL sick so at least I don't feel like I need to worry as much about the dumb cup. : )

THANKS, ALL!