Saying Goodbye To The Beaker

When I gave up work last year one of my goals was to move Ethan from his beaker onto a cup. He easily moved from his bottles onto his beaker at one but this is where we stayed. Nothing I tried worked, and if we tried to push this change Ethan got very distressed so I gave up on the idea. 

Move forward a year and a few months ago Ethan suddenly started to take an interest in our cups and what we had in them, he even tried to take a few sips every now and then. We encouraged this, even with hot tea in them. We didn’t want to show any negativity around cups so we also had to teach him that sometimes cups and their contents could be hot. This meant we always had to be alert so that no accidents happened as Ethan could suddenly decide to pull a cup we were drinking from towards himself. 

Then Ethan become fascinated with Darren’s glass at dinner time and Darren would let him take sips of his drink. This become a regular occurrence but obviously giving Ethan a glass to drink from was a no go. We tried to give him a cup but Ethan just pushed it away. 

Then Darren had a brainwave that possibly Ethan liked that he could see the liquid in the glass, so nanny got Ethan a plastic picnic glass. One for Darren and one for Ethan. It worked Ethan took sips from this glass at dinner time. 

After a few nights we decided that perhaps we should just remove the option of the beaker and see how Ethan got on. So last Thursday the beaker has no longer been an option, if Ethan wanted a drink he would be offered this glass. 

We have to still ask Ethan if he wants a drink as it isn’t something he will ask for. I was paranoid that Ethan wasn’t drinking enough, but I have been told he will be getting bigger gulps of water now than he did with the beaker. 
 
Fingers crossed the beaker is no more and Ethan is even drinking from the cups at nursery. 
 
I’m so excited about this change as to me the beaker was still a sign of being a baby, and as much as Ethan will always be my baby, at four years old it really is time to say goodbye to the beaker.

12 thoughts on “Saying Goodbye To The Beaker”

  1. Caroline Elliott

    Aww yay and well done to Ethan! Sometimes it’s all about figuring out what they need isn’t it, and obviously having a clear cup so he could see the drink inside was what he needed to make the transition, that and your patience and perseverance 🙂 xx #ssamaxingachievements

  2. Well done Ethan, that’s a great step forward. We’ve been drinking from cups for a long time but Monkey will only drink his milk through a straw – no idea why, but if the straw isn’t available he will not drink his milk. Water, juice – fine!

  3. Well done you for achieving your goal – although it is hard to sometimes stay calm when you’re dealing with children and food. I never know how much the children are actually drinking and it does sometimes worry me, but I didn’t know they drink more from a cup than a beaker. Thnx for the linky it’s a great way to record our children’s achievements. Tracey @ mummyshire.com

  4. I am struggling with the changes with my son too. I moved his potty lately and he started having accidents. I am so stressed. He has been good and spotless with his record in our potty training and I just moved his potty and this is happening. I wish that I can find the reason for this accidents and if theres none I wish that that accident is the last one. I would also like to apologize for not linking up lately. It is a bit busy and I really have an entry but the thing is I cant comment as much as before so I dont want to be a link and run type of blogger. I will try to link up again in #SSAA after everything is settled.

  5. Aww such a grown up!! My big boy likes to drink from cups occasionally but he’s still a big fan of tipping them over so we’re not ready yet!! #loudnproud (2boys1mum)

  6. Oh bless him, that photo is adorable. I think moving from the beaker to the glass is probably the last stage of not being a little little kid anymore. Well done Ethan – and great to see you, thank you for linking to PoCoLo 🙂 x

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