I was jumping in joy at one night Nico drank his glass of milk straight without any sign of resistance.  I thought I can already say: Thank goodness, finally! Not too fast. I think I spoke too soon.  That was just one of those very rare days the Little Boy does that.

He simply is testing my patience, making the drinking of milk from a glass an ordeal.  Hay, susme! My acne breakouts are increasing by the day just convincing him to drink from a glass.  And I told myself, this can’t be happening forever, or I’ll give up.  I was kinda desperate and even considered getting back to the bottle. What silly idea! But that’s because I’ve tried anything and every trick there is to make the drinking session a little harmonious but I haven’t had any luck yet.  Until one fine weekend, my Little Boy was watching his fave shows on Nick, I saw this advertisement where it was shown the kids are enjoying their milk with the use of a special straw—the Sippah straw, the fun way to drink milk!

I stored in mind what it looked like and promised myself I’ll go look for it when we do the groceries.  And I was successful in finding the product. It was located in the racks near the growing milk products. To my excitement, I didn’t looked at the nutritional facts, and gave it a go.  I bought a couple of boxes, (the chocolate flavored one) and immediately by the minute we’re home, I tried it with Nico.  And the result:

The Sipahh straws is not your ordinary kinds of straw. They’re filled with little pellets of flavoring .

How the kids in the advertisement showed their love for drinking milk, I likewise saw it when Nico used the straw.  Cool huh? The glass of milk was consumed in a blink of an eye. Hehe, of course that’s an exaggeration. Ummm, make that two minutes, to be more exact.

Well, I was really happy seeing the trick worked.  But being the meticulous Mom that I am, I researched what’s the magic behind this Sippah straws–what makes it kick? The packaging says: Natural colors, no artificial flavors, no preservatives. But does the labels speak truth?

A few googling into the Net, there I saw a very relevant review by BevNET, a beverage-oriented media company operating that reviews on drinks and beverages.  Part of the review which I noted and nodded in agreement:

Honestly, I was quite surprised to see artificial sweeteners as part of the ingredients. These products are for kids — What kid is going to be tricked into drinking milk with aftertaste of artificial sweeteners? Do parents really want their kids drinking sucralose and acesulfame potassium? I sure don’t.

And my answer to the question addressed on parents? Of course not! I definitely wouldn’t want any of those artificial sweeteners for my son.  And I so agree with another point raised by BevNet.

Provided highly sweetened food is an occasional thing rather than a staple - I don’t see the need to get hysterical. Health and obesity issues aside - I believe we have a problem with the way we condition our taste buds to very sweet foods.

And so, that was the first and last time Nico had the Sippah straw on his milk. Those left unconsumed, I kept as souvenir of my buying misadventures.

Now, what step did I took to make Nico drink milk from a glass? I resorted to having the ordinary straws instead.  Sometimes it works, sometimes not.  Still hoping though he’d get used to drinking milk from the glass, without prodding, and without the straws. Soon.