Funny straw encourages kids to drink...anything

Mamaloo wields the tried-and-true curly straw:

Getting my 3 1/2 year old son to drink milk is like pulling teeth.  When he was smaller, we encouraged milk consumption with a little chocolate in the mix, but he certainly doesn't need the extra sugar.  This morning, while struggling to get him to consume half a glass (a Batman glass, even!) of milk, I hit on a genius idea: a funny straw!  I popped in a straw that twists around and around and not only did he drink his milk, he asked for more!  Just be sure to wash the straw right away so it's ready for action again soon.

This trick would work getting kids to take medicine, too.

Tags: Feeding kids, Parenting

Comments

[inconsequentia]

a drop of food colouring / food dye works wonders. our son will drink milk fine, but our daughter (5) would go days without if we'd let it happen. we can make princess milk (a drop of red makes pink milk); jedi milk (green, usually); blue milk to go with blueberry pancakes... you get the idea. i was amazed at how well it *continued* to work after the novelty of the first few times.

[Gina]

Milk and kids are not made for each other.
Info here:
http://tinyurl.com/2dqdwq

[marykz]

But how do you get those blasted curly straws really clean? Since my kid loves any kind of straw, we moved to the disposable bendy straw. MKZ

[Daniel J. Penczak]

If the curly straw is tough to clean you might want to try a different kind of novelty straw. I bought my son a "silly" straw with a fish head on it and it seems to create bubbles within the straw but is no more difficult to clean than an ordinary straw.

[mamaloo]

I just tried out the food colouring tip and I have to admit that it works better than the silly straw! THanks! I was so thrilled with my son's response that I posted about the experience this morning: http://momcast.blogspot.com/2007/01/it-really-works.html