Confession

This is kind of weird, so try to keep an open mind:  I gave Elliot some of my Diet Coke yesterday.

The reason it happened was that for the past few weeks I've been trying to teach him to drink from a cup, but he was never interested.  And then today he was suddenly really interested in my cup of Coke, grabbing at it and staring at me as I drank it.  So I figured, if giving him a little would teach him how to drink from a cup, it's worth whatever minimal effects there might be.

For what it's worth, he frowned every time took a sip.  But then he would go back for more, so he ended up drinking quite a bit, I would say maybe a third of a can.

This is an especially funny coincidence because of what I posted a few days ago at the museum, about not giving him Coke.  But actually, it was writing that that got me thinking about the subject.  Why do we have this strict rule that babies can drink nothing but breast milk?  Is it really so terrible to have a few sips of a carbonated beverage?

Okay, so Diet Coke does have caffeine, and that part does seem like a bad idea.  But actually, caffeine is a very mild stimulant that only works on specific neurotransmitters.  The official name of the chemical is methylxanthine, and it's been extensively studied, as you can imagine, and it's always been found to be safe.  I did a quick Medline search, and there are absolutely no studies out there showing detrimental effects from giving a baby a small dose of caffeine.

So I'm sure some of you think I'm a terrible father now, I probably shouldn't have posted this.  It really was just a one-time thing, to help him learn to drink from a cup.

p.s. I already told Hannah about this, so I'm not breaking any news here...