Got Milk? Get to bed!

Well, I am sitting here typing this wishing to God I liked coffee...I am dead tired and a bit frazzled. We had a very, very long night with Anderson.

Anderson has this thing for milk - he loves it - wants it - demands it constantly. If we let him, he would drink 4 litres of the white stuff a day. But here is the real kicker - it is not even the real stuff that he drinks - it is fake milk, wanna-be milk!

Anderson has always liked milk, starting right with booby milk. He took to breast feeding like a seasoned pro. He weaned himself, so, there were no real issues. Then he got hooked on homo milk, then we switched him to 2%, then 1% - he loves it all.

But then I started noticing how much he was drinking and that there was a direct correlation between his white-liquid consumption and his eczema flair ups and consequently his bad sleeping and that lead to behaviour issues during the waking hours.

I did a bit of homework and decided that perhaps milk was a cause for concern in his diet. So we tried soy milk. Yeek - huge eczema flair up! (did you know that 90% of those who have lactose issues with milk also react to soy milk?). We finally tried rice milk. VOILA!

Have you ever drank rice milk ---- YUK! No better way to describe this watery-on-tasting stuff. But, tell Anderson it is milk, and he is all over it!

I am at wits end. Last night Anderson was up from 2:30 AM to 5:00 AM screaming for milk. We tried giving him a bit...then a bellow of, "I NEEEEEEED MOOORRE MMMMILK" would shake the foundation of our house. So, we put our foot down and said no...well the fit lasted almost 2 hours.

We even went to extremes and put him in the bad boys chair... and when that did not work, allowed him to get his coat on to go buy milk on his own in the dark. (I am now wondering if Ander knows of a corner dealer of shady milk...should I be worried?) Note, he did not leave the garage, but we hoped the scary night would convince him to go back to bed.

What to do? Do we let him carry on like this and we risk the entire household waking up? How do we curb this milk demand? How do we keep the sanity? How do we get some sleep? Do we cave and keep the rice milk/water flowing?

Suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?

The ironic thing about it all is that through all the chaos and shouting Madigan slept...she slept from 12:14AM to 5:43AM - a new record.

Maybe I will brew a cup of coffee - hold the milk, black please!