Baby Cups – an oxymoron?

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When my son was born, I made the decision to breast feed. At 8 weeks old we attempted to introduce to him a bottle with expressed milk This was unsuccessful.

I have had many ‘helpful’ comments explaining to me that if he was really hungry he would take a bottle no trouble.

This was not the case and I believe I am not the only mother who found themselves in this position, made to feel as though they had failed in some way, or that they had ‘spoilt’ their child by breast feeding.

I do not feel hard done by. I did not want to introduce a bottle as a substitute to feeding, I was always intending to continue but it was so that I could be away from my son for longer than two hours if I wanted to be.

We persevered, we didn’t just give up on the bottle but it became clear that it was not to be.

At that point, I discovered this was not an isolated case.

When my son was about five and a half months old, I stumbled across @babycuphello Twitter account.

Baby cups? Surely this was somewhat of an oxymoron? A small open cup for a baby to drink from themselves, this couldn’t work could it?

Babycup -Little cups for little people. Weaning and drinking 6mths-2.5yrs. Cup- feeding newborns including premature babies.

Find out more about babycup

I loved the concept, read the testimonials and decided we had to give them a go.

This is an honest, no holds barred, Mum trying a product review.

I write this in the hope that other mums who may have been made to feel that they have somehow ‘failed’ their child by being unsuccessful with a bottle will quash that idea and see there is an alternative.

When I first received the babycups, they reminded me somewhat of shot glasses.

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My son was intrigued by them, wanting to hold a babycup and explore it. I noticed, as I gave it to him just to look at for the first time that he almost insinstinctively put it to his mouth.

The first few times that we attempted it with a little water, I had to help him navigate holding it but he immediately made drinking motions and took liquid in.

This was a milestone moment for us. There was no turning of the head or flat refusal.

Within a week, my son was able to hold a babycup independently and drink from it.

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We had done little more than help him hold it initially and then slowly remove support. It took a week for him to become an independent drinker at 6 months old!

The cups come in a range of colours, are small enough to fit in your changing bag or even handbag and are endorsed as healthy choice for your baby.

This product has quite frankly been life changing for us as a family and have provided a solution and alternative to bottles.

Don’t just take my word for it, check out the @babycuphello Twitter account for plenty more pictures and testimonials of babycup being used by parents.

You can also check out my Twitter account @Loulou_Uberkirk to see my own tweets about the product prior to writing this review.

So, if you’re a parent feeling guilty or as if you have failed, if you are a parent looking for an alternative to sippy cups or bottles, or if you are weaning and want to try something new, try babycup.

Reasonably priced, in a range of colours, small and portable and promoting independence for your little one.

Further questions contact Sara hello@babycup.co.uk or on Twitter @babycuphello

A different love story

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Being Valentine’s Day it seems fitting to post about love. The problem is, as a society our idea of love has become synonymous with flowers, chocolates and hearts or worse still we have confused the concept of love with lust.

For me personally Valentine’s Day is just like any other, not because my husband is unromantic, or because I myself am, but because I don’t think love is something you express on only one day of the year or that it should only be focused on for one day.

I was asked by yesheis.com to review their new video for Valentine’s Day – it is entitled ‘A different love story’ and can be found here

The video begins with a girl telling us she was waiting to be swept off her feet by a Prince Charming the way it is portrayed in films and songs. The fairytale of love we are taught to buy into.

In fact all she really wanted was to be treasured.

Then the voice changes to a male voice saying ‘We are all just looking, looking for someone.’

Both tell their own stories of seeking love as they believed it should be and how it left them wanting.

They tell the story of their own
journey in finding the love of Jesus.
What I like about this video is that it is based around the whole idea of personal story – we are being told about their journey first hand.

There is something powerful to me about someone’s story and experience – getting to know where they were and where they are now.

There is contrast in the two stories in their starting points and how they came to seek out love and although they both find that it is the love of Jesus that ultimately satisfies it shows how different that relationship is for each of them.

We are left with the text ‘Jesus thinks you’re to die for. Get to know him for yourself.’

A clever play on words – it makes you think and that is the ultimate success of the video – it makes you think.

If you were asked to define love what would you say? If you had to talk about your experiences of it would they be similar to the stories in the video?

You see even though they are two personal stories they could be any of ours.

This Valentine’s Day, why not watch the video for yourself and think, really think about your understanding of love.