Cranberry Juice . . . Who Would Have Thought?

 

I know nobody wants to hear any more about my attempts to wean the now almost two-and-a-half-year-old Alaina, but our recent development is too astounding not to share.

First of all, just to reiterate, I never set out to have a nursing toddler. I am not a member of any breastfeeding organizations, and if someone had told me that one day I’d be trying to wean a two year old, I would have been horrified. But--as all of us know--things don’t always turn out as planned.

For several months now, Alaina has been down to two servings of "baby milk" a day--usually she is fine with this, and if, during the day, she asks to nurse, she quickly corrects herself and adds, "at bedtime." If Alaina wakes up during the night, she always asks, "Is it morning?" and I tell her the milk is still sleeping.

 

Feeling that this had been going on long enough, though, I decided it was time to cut out the morning nurse . . . but how? It seemed Alaina’s entire day and night revolved around these two feedings.

Ever since Alaina was just over ONE year old, I’d been trying to substitute everything from a bottle or soother to a stuffie or a cuddle in the rocking chair to wean her. She had never taken to anything.



But considering that Alaina is now TWO, I realized there might be many other options we hadn’t yet considered.

One morning we tried Multigrain Cheerios in bed (without milk, or course!), and that worked well the first time. The next thing I tried was cranberry juice (Janae’s favorite kind of juice) . . . and the results were amazing.

Now, even during the day when Alaina needs comfort, she asks, "Can I have some cranberry juice in the rocking chair?"

I put some juice in a cup, and she sits with me and drinks it.

 

I know medical and dental health professionals always say that kids don’t need juice--and that plain water is best--but since Alaina has really "latched onto" this new idea . . . and we are always really good about brushing her teeth, I can’t see any harm in keeping the juice flowing (rest assured we are only using 100 percent pure juice blends with no sugar added).

 

Best of all, we are now just one last step away from burning the nursing bras! :)