The Little Drunkard

I know it sounds like a broken record when I say this but I can't say it enough. Kids grow so fast, what feels like a blink of an eye, and yet leave light years of memories. Very deep indeed. Our Jeev is a grown up baby and almost a toddler now, taking a few of his initial steps of toddling around before he starts taking over the space.

I could write a book on our journey of nurturing Jeev during his first year, but before I do that, I shall give a preview on one aspect of this journey. Just one word. Water.

So Jeev was a somewhat breastfed baby, I say somewhat because there were hurdles and humps along the way in achieving the full breastfed status. Since breast milk has high water content I did not feed him any water the first 6 months. 

Once I introduced solids at the 6th month, I tried feeding him water from the bottle, and he rejected it with a weird look that said 'that's not milk, are you cheating me?' I gave the sippy, this time, he did not know how sip from it altogether. 

Down and desperate, I succumbed to spiking the water with gripe water in the bottle for some extra taste to lure him into getting himself hydrated after his nice solid meals. It worked. Next mission was to slowly move on to the sippy or straw cup for water. Hopefully minus the gripe water.

Subsequently I tried several methods on sneaking in the colorful sippy but he just did not get the gist in using it. It did not help that water tasted like, well, water. 

I noticed that he was pretty curious about our cups when we drink water. I decided to give it a try. I let him sip some water from his cup in between and after meals. In the beginning we would react like he is drowning and losing breath, and later spit out all the water from his mouth. He seemed to prefer gargling each time. After many days, tries and changes of clothes later for both of us, he finally seemed like he was drinking some amount of water indeed. 

I continued giving water in cup after that, occasionally sneaking in a test run on the straw cup. It was an amazing day when he held onto the straw cup and just went on sipping water! Although there were several spitting here and there, I was a happy mommy.

And now after almost 2 months of sipping from the straw cup, water is his favorite drink of the day, during meals, in between meals, and after meals. And he has gotten so expert that he uses the regular straw cup without flow control. He loves drinking water so much that he finishes his water before his food. And during any possible contact with water, be it his bath or wiping his face, he lets his tongue out to taste all the amount of water he can!

Kids, they don't just grow up fast,they develop fast too!