Battle of the Binky: Take Two

We had it all mapped out. When Christian turned 10 months old we did away with the bottle. At 11 months we began the slow transition to milk. And at a year old we ditched the binky.

Take One: The week after Christian’s first birthday we decided that it was time to say bye-bye to the binky. Since I am addicted to reading books on development and websites on parenting, we tried the “trick” of cutting holes in the binkies. The presence of the whole prevents the suction effect of the binky. As soon as we gave Christian his binky he took it out of his mouth and threw it. We knew that we would be faced with a few days of extra fuss, but it was well worth it in the end. Until..

Take Two: Over the past month we noticed that Christian would walk around with his sippy cup hanging from his mouth. At first I blamed it on teething, thinking he was just biting it for the sensation. We slowly noticed that it was becoming the new binky. Two nights ago, Michael went into Christian’s room to take the bedtime sippy of milk out of his crib, what he saw, was quite upsetting. Christian had the spout of the sippy cup in his mouth, using as his self-proclaimed pacifier. We immediately decided that it was time to transition to a different type of drinking cup.

When searching for a sippy-cup, we found that one with a soft-spout was best. It was the easiest transition for Christian from the bottle, but now this soft-silicone has become a problem. I spent twenty minutes in the store today, searching for a new sippy-cup, but could not decide on one. I know that this will be a process, of some sleepless nights and excessive fussiness until Christian realizes that he will not be getting his former sippy cup/binky source, but we have done it before and we WILL do it again.

So parents – do you have any suggestions for sippies that you approve of and your child likes?