The Adventures of Asyraf and His Susu

getting amir off his milk was not difficult. before he turned one, he was already showing signs of dislike to bottles and milk. giving him even an oz was such a task. before long it was wasted tumblers after tumblers (he grew out of bottles after he turned 1). amir fully stopped before he turned 20 months.

asyraf is a different case altogether. due to his terrible-horrible temperament when he was younger, his bottle became more than just for milk. it also became his pacifier. he would not let go of his bottle. if he screamed, we would shove a bottle in his mouth. of course, the bottle cannot be empty, else he'd be consuming air. so it was like dumping oodles and oodles of milk into his small body. there were times when he would throw up from too much milk and there were nights when he would scream out loud because he was too full and could not sleep. what did we do...gave him his bottle. vicious cycle!

the pacifying effect stayed with him till recently. if he wakes up at night, he would feel around in the dark for his bottle and would not go back to sleep unless its back in his mouth.

asyraf was also too sensitive that we dared not change his milk. he was on enfalac AR for his first 12 months and we moved on to enfapro when he neared his first year. once he turned 18 months, i had to think of what milk to give him. enfagrow came in 3 flavours and i didnt want to risk him showing adverse reaction.

after some research and recommendation from friends (azie esp) i decided to give him dugro. one of the reason was that it had 'natural flavour', not that i know what that meant. at least it wasnt vanilla or chocolate or honey. i was so scared to give him, i cant afford an "asyraf throwing up" phase.

that was the first step to my mission. the next is to slowly give him less milk. we would make extremely diluted milk for asyraf, ie 3 scoops for a 9oz bottle (1/3 of the recommended serving). he took it well, surprisingly. didnt kick up much fuss.

the third step is to take the bottle away from him. for the past few weeks, we've been constantly changing teats because asyraf bites them. $10 per teat, asyraf! i thought...ok, lets change bottles. but that would defeat the purpose as he would bite whatever new bottles i get for him. so its spout time. i bought the avent spout for him since he was 6 months. ever since then he would scream and shout and throw the bottle if we gave him the spout.

this time around, mummy doesnt care...spout or no milk. asyraf chose no milk. erk...that got me worried a bit. from 5 full 9oz-bottles a day (sometimes 2 bottles before he goes to sleep) to absolutely no milk at all? its ok, we'll see how far he'd take this. i would pack a bottle with spout and a tumbler in his daycare bag, and told the teacher, offer the spout first, if he doesnt want then offer the tumbler. he took the tumbler. he wont drink as fast as he would with a bottle but he chose the tumbler over the spout. so i stopped packing bottles and would just put tumblers in his bag.

at home i would give him a bottle with teat only once. that is before he goes to sleep. much as i want to get him off the bottles and milk, i would want him to be full when he sleeps. no waking up whimpering at night, no waking up hungry at night. at least let him have a good night's sleep.

but asyraf was choosy though after the change. he would only drink when he was really, really desperate. no drinking in the car anymore. no more drinking before he took his daytime nap. and now, no more seconds before he goes to bed.

alhamdulillah, as of yesterday he had only 2 bottles of milk. once during his afternoon nap, i gave him a bottle with spout. i dont actually know when he drank because when i left him in his playpen he wouldnt look at the bottle. once more before he slept, i gave him a bottle with teat as i wanted him to drink and drink fast. i gave the bottle quite early so i made another just in case. asyraf said no...but since he says no to everything, so i made it anyway. he didnt drink so i guess he meant it.

so hopefully asyraf's susu adventure will end soon.