It was the same time last year when I potty trained Amber. I trained her for 3 days only. It was really successful and from then on, I don't put on diaper on her if we're here at home.
Now that she's 3 and will be attending school this year, I decided to wean her from drinking milk from her feeding bottle. A few months back, I gave away 2 bottles to my nephew and we were down to 3 bottles. The other day, I just decided to wean her right then and there. I remember posting on Facebook asking moms like me how to successfully wean a toddler from drinking in a feeding bottle and there were a lot of suggestions from my friends. But again, it still boils down to how the child will respond to this change, right?
Day 1: She still used her feeding bottle to drink water. She was used to this when she's lying and playing on her tablet or whenever she drinks water. Then when I decided to start weaning her, I told her that she will now start drinking milk from her cup. And as many toddler will respond, she cried and said no. There were few attempts to ask for milk in a bottle but I always tell her that if she wants milk, I will have to use her cup. And then another loud cry from her.
And as for me being a "grumpy" mommy, I also prepared myself for this training, haha. Training talaga. I have to have a lot of patience with this because it is already given and expected she will cry if I don't give her what she wants. So Day 1, she did not drink milk, the whole day. I tried feeding her rice and ham (she requested) but didn't even finish eating it.
Day 2: Around 2am to 4am, she woke up asking for milk. I asked her, "Gusto mo timplahan kita sa baso, Amber?" And then she insisted, "Gusto ko sa bottle!" And then I told her again that there are no more bottles. I haven't said the reason why there were no bottles anymore. She cried for about 30 minutes or less and then fell asleep again.
When she woke up past 6am, I asked her if she wants Milo and bread with cheese and she said yes. So I made her Milo and tasty bread with cheese. She was able to finish 2 tasty bread with cheese and Milo too. For lunch, I cooked Tinola because it's one of her favorite ulam. Unfortunately, she only had about 3-4 spoon of it. Then she requested for milk, this time she's requesting for milk in a cup! Yay! I was so happy when I heard it and I said I will make her a cup of milk. When I handed it over to her, she said she doesn't want it full so I had to drink some of it to make it half full. She wasn't able to finish it but it was still fine. Baby steps. :) I again gave her milk before she went to bed and she was able to finish it. Ha! (Had to make "uto" for her to finish it. Haha.)
I made this yesterday when she requested for bread with cheese. I am not really creative and this is all what I came up to, but to my surprise she actually loved it, she said to me, "Mommy sarap ng heart na cheese!"
What made me so happy was when I realized this morning that she was asleep the whole night, she didn't woke me up to ask for milk because she was full that night before she went to bed. Ha! I also made a story yesterday afternoon about her feeding bottles. I told her that a mommy snake came here and asked her Daddy if we have feeding bottles because the baby snakes needs the bottles and so her Daddy gave it to the mommy snake." Haha. I guess it made her think why it has to be the snake. Haha. I also heard her say to her cousin, "Hindi na ako iinom ng milk sa bottle." Hahaha.
We are now on Day 3 and I bought her Bear Brand Choco Milk and likes it very much. I can say we are successful on the 3rd day just like when we did the potty train last year. Oh by the way, we also stopped giving her chocolates, candies, cookies with fillings. I bough crackers only to stock in her "baunan" so she'll get used to eating those. I admit that I made a lot of mistakes in the past because I thought that giving her want she "wants" will be good for her, I was totally wrong. We always give her chocolates, candies and other sweets in the past whenever I do groceries for her but now, we limit the sweets we give her.
This is her lunch today. I had to buy cheese powder so she'll eat these nuggets. The nuggets I bought doesn't come with free cheese powder which she loves. She finished her food because of the magical cheese powder. :)
To all moms who are reading this, I'd like to know how you were able to successfully wean your toddlers into a life changing moment such as this. I'd like to hear good stories because I am a first time mom so it would be a great help if you share your stories too!
