weaning… sippy cups and other habits!

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any advice for weaning bad habits. Hailey is still using a sippy cup at age 4.5 to drink milk. After all her feeding problems, I always said I wouldn’t care if she walked down the aisle with a sippy of milk, but I’m now having a hard time breaking the habit. She drinks everything else from a regular cup, but the sippy has become like a bottle, I sense. She just screams and yells that she wants her milk, and it goes in a sippy.

Similarly, she’s still an avid finger sucker (two fingers on left hand)- she sucks and twirls her hair with the other hand as a way to calm herself. I’m having a hard time getting her to stop!!! Any advice.

On a good note- for those of you who remember my constipation queen- Hailey has officially been off miralax and pooping on her own for nearly 2 months! I swear I never thought we’d get there!

[hellbennt]

oh Lori I don’t know…I would encourage her to only suck her fingers in her room/bed…talk about others seeing her and how they might get mean about it…it’s hard- you don’t want her to think the world is cruel, but it is…
I wouldn’t try and stop it all together? when I see a kid at my school sucking their thumb I whisper in their ear for them to do that at home & then smile at them- so they’re not embarrassed by me saying aloud in front of everyone and that they know that it’s ‘ok’ but just at home…
as for the sippy- no advice. just that you don’t want to make it a battle, you know? hugs.

[Anonymous]

Yeah for being off the miralax, I was reading a post of yours once and she’s been off prevacid for so long and it seems like yesterday you posted that!

Can you use the kindergarten route with the sippy? Griffin always wanted to try hard when I talked about manners, etc that his teachers would want him to use in kindergarten. He was totally excited about going so I would say, we chew with our mouth closed in kindergarten, etc, etc. I know that Griffin’s class has a milk and snack in the morning and at lunch it’s their only choice. Will she drink milk out of a cup at say Grandparents or something? You could go the route of just throwing them out and seeing what happens for a couple of days? I’m sure it could be painful for you listening to it, but maybe like a bottle it would just take a few days? I’m sure she’s still small for her age, so of course you don’t want to take calories away from her.

The sucking the fingers thing, I’m so glad I never had a thumb sucker! But I did it and I pulled out my hair while a twirled it. My mom had to sit me a certain way when she took pics for a long time b/c I had a bald spot. It could be worse I guess!?!

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys! Yes, it could be worse for sure (and once was!!) so I’m not complaining. I’m just such a sucker with her, and she cries at the drop of a hat, so any little thing sets her off. She’s already in kindergarten, so I probably missed the boat on that one. With H1N1, I hate to have her sucking her fingers… for the most part, it’s not at school. Just at daycare when napping, and at home or in the car whenever she’s not doing anything. I think I’ll have to do cold turkey with the sippy since she will drink her milk from a regular cup at the daycare, so definitely my bad habit.

Erica- Do you still twirl/pull your hair? When/how did you stop? I’m so scared that she’s going to develop trichotillomania because she does it all the time.

[Anonymous]

My mom still talks about it to this day. She put socks on my arms, used that nasty nail biting stuff that tastes bad, and tried to wear hats on me. I outgrew it, but it was at a young age, before 3 I would say. I will have to ask her. I bit my fingernails instead. Another horrible habit. Don’t ever let your kids do that. I would say now that I’m a figety person. I don’t have any hair fettish, but when I’m really stressed, ususally when I’m driving and thinking about everything I have to do, I will ocassionally bite my nails. I’ll have to get back to you on what age I stopped and what else my mom tried.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, at this point I’ve tried it all… I really think she’s going to have a wierd hair fetish. Once I saw she had a hair in her hand, and put it in her drawer before bed in her room. I asked her what it was, and she said it was special and she found it on the floor and wanted to keep it!!!… wierd!?

[Author]

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