The Bottle!

Um, my name is Brooke and my 19 month old daughter still has her bottle.

Hi Brooke!

Yeah that's right I feel like I should get some group therapy on how to take my daughter's bottle away from her.  She loves it.  I love it.  When it comes nap or bedtime we give that to our daughter and she's out.  It comforts her and it makes our job easier. BUT. I do know that it's wrong.  The doctor did tell me that my daughter can have her bottle until she is 12 as long as there is no milk in there, it's the milk sugars that harm the teeth, but on the other hand the bottle can affect their teeth and the way they come in.

To be honest with you I haven't done much research on the effects of having a bottle until your double digits, but I do know that would be rather embarrassing for all involved it that was the case.

I just want to justify why my daughter still has a bottle at almost 2 years of age in addition to the things I mentioned above.  She is such a good, good girl and doesn't have any other attachments to anything - a blanky, a stuffed toy or doll just her bottle and so I feel bad about taking that one thing away.

I feel though that I am not giving her the respect she deserves because she is a smart and adaptable little girl and I bet we could take it away and she would do just fine.  So is she still given her bottle because we can't part with it? What to do?  What to do?

The interesting thing is when I talk to other mom's about they have no advice but yet they just took it away at 12 months with no problems. Is it really that easy?   

Dum Dums!!

We joined my partner's family for dinner last night at a restaurant.  M was clearly tired as she didn't get much sleep at the sitter's (Grandma), so I will excuse her crazy behavior for that since it is not entirely her fault.  Did I let her eat 3, yes 3 Dum Dum suckers for dinner? Yes!  Even though she had a perfectly warm and yummy dinner in front of her.  Yes!  Do I suck as a mom? Possibly!! But, I wanted to let everyone else around us enjoy their dinner.  Were we at a family friendly restaurant that frequently witnesses outbursts from their young patrons? Yes!  But, I wanted to enjoy my perfectly warm and yummy dinner too! We all survived.  M will too!  No worries we boxed up her meal and she had it for lunch today.  Did I get judged by others?  Of course I did.  I even heard the people in the booth next to us comment on the Dum Dum consumption.  Yeah well your 3 old daughter still has a freakin' binky!!!! I decided to keep that comment to myself. Judging gets you nowhere.  See we obviously judge ourselves enough. 

I read a quote like this that I really liked and have reminded myself of it all week.

Judging a person does not define who they are, it defines who you are!