Blake was 13 months on Friday... which means this time a year ago he was only a month old... This is what he looked like.
Any ways I thought I'd update you on my choices as a mother.
I wanted to cut his bottle out altogether at 13 months, so tonight I prepared his milk and put it into one of his sippy beakers. He was happy with this however he does guzzle it way to quickly and pours alot of it down himself so tomorrow I shall buy another one as the teat on this one has took a battering!
How did the dummy removal go??? Fine. He last had it the day before his 1st birthday and hasn't had it since, we struggle a little with his back teeth now coming through but if i give him some ambesol, calpol and some very cold cucumber to chew on it seems to do the trick. I would definitely recommend 12 months as a good age to remove a dummy.
And the potty introduction??? Not so fine. As I only intended to introduce the potty I'm not too bothered, except he won't sit on it full stop. We have tried a few things such as putting toys on it and taking it turns to sit on it. So now I'm not so sure whether to take it away for a while and then re-introduce it or whether to get a different one... Still figuring that one out so stay tuned for more decisions.
My son turned 1 a week ago. So mummy introduced some changes and a few new rules.
1. No more dummy.
I chose to give Blake a dummy when he was 1 day old, he was a comfort sucker and I didn't want him finding his thumb, however I really don't like seeing 3 year old's (boys especially) with dummy's, so I decided I would wean him off of it. At about 10 months I started only allowing it at nap times and bed times. And now he is one they're gone altogether. The first day (his actual birthday) was the hardest as he was teething alot, but after showing him alternatives such as chewing on his teething toys he soon accepted that there was no dummies. And it has not been a problem since, even when he has seen other peoples dummies, hes not bothered. Yes my child is amazing. lol
2. No more day time milk bottle.
Blake has a drink of full fat cows milk out of a beaker in the morning with his cereal. His 3pm bottle got stopped on his 1st birthday. And he has 7/8oz of SMA follow on milk before bed. Once this tin is empty we will replace it with SMA 1+ for a short time. This is not to say hes not allowed to drink milk in the day, if I feel his diet one day is lacking dairy I might give him a beaker with milk in. Just not a bottle, and its not routine'd into the day. I plan to change the bed time bottle to a beaker/sippy cup at 13 months and try and introduce brushing teeth after milk, rather than before.
3. Introduction to the potty.
I held back on buying a potty in case he got one for his birthday, but will be buying one very soon. In the next few weeks I am going to introduce sitting on the potty before bath time. I don't expect miracles, this is purely so he can learn what its for and if one day he did do something in it we can give him major praises so he understands that's what he needs to do. I'm quite excited about starting this learning curve.
