How do you get older sibs to be careful/gentle with younger ones?

WhiteysWifey

We have a 2.5 year old and 6 month triplets. The 2 year old is constantly poking at them, sticking her fingers in their face, pulling on them, and has even bit 2 of them (not badly though). I've tried timeouts, talking to her, letting her spend as much time outside as possible to burn off energy, but nothing seems to help. I know this is a boredom issue for her, but have no clue what else to do. Fortunately the babies are all sturdy big babies. Any insight or advice would be awesome! Thanks.

celiabwatson

Your kids are the same ages as mine

I did basically the same things you're doing. I don't normally do timeouts but I would ignore the toddler and focus on the baby and he doesn't like being ignored. I tell him "It hurts the baby when you ____" and "it's not nice to _____". I also try to let him burn off energy as often as possible. Ultimately the most effective thing has been when the baby cries. He's hurt her several times (hitting with a toy or biting) enough that she starts crying hard. The first several times he didn't get it, but more recently he hit her (accidentally while throwing a toy) and he immediately said, "sorry baby, it's ok" and came to help cuddle her. I've also noticed a decrease in intentional hurting lately as well. I think as she's becoming more mobile and aware he sees her more as a person and thus has more compassion. Does that make sense? 

spunkyprincessmande

We practice "nice" with Micah, showing him how to touch the baby and where. He still loves to point out baby's facial features and poke him but we try to tell him not to touch baby's face. He also loves to "snuggle with him in the bouncy or on the floor. We try to let him do as much as possible in order to encourage the bonding. The baby is resilient and let's us know when he's had enough!

 

jf198400

We taught our daughter to do "Gentle" basically petting the baby the same way as our dog.  So whenever she gets a little rough, we say "Can you do gentle to the baby?" 

orangecurls

What is 1 2 3 magic?

brewcitybride

I think what you are doing is all you can do - redirect your older child, keep reminding your older child not to pick up/poke/harrass the babies. It's an age thing, too - my older child is 3 and a half and is much more in tune with the fact that she shouldn't pick up the baby, put food in the babies mouth, etc. Had she been 2 or 2 and a half when we had the baby, I think we would have had a different story!