Help me with my 11 month old....

GideonsMommy

My boy is 11 months old, this is my first baby so I obviously am still "clueless" about this stage. Here's whats going on....

I have completely baby proofed the living room so there are no hazards or things I don't want him getting into except the woodstove. Obviously we are not burning fires right now but it is surrounded by rock and is something we want him to learn is dangerous. Plus, as he is learning to walk and stuff falling onto the rocks is scary.

Up until recently he was pretty good about turning away when we would tell him not to touch, danger, no no, etc. He likes to bring his toys over and bang them on the rocks, crawl up on them and try to touch the chrome on the stove. Lately he just looks at me and ignores me, even if I speak in a deep/harsher tone. I speak my peace about not wanting him touching it, then I pick him up and move him. He immediately heads right back for it. It is his favorite thing in the room now and there is nothing else he wants to do more. It is exhausting all day battling it out with him over the woodstove and I am so frustrated! It just seems like no matter what I do, he is either not getting the picture or could care less that we don't want him at the woodstove.

 So is this is just part of toddler-hood or is there something I need to do to help make this less of a battle between us? Thanks fellow mamas. : )

Squirrel29

You just have to be consistent.  I know it feels like he'll never get it but he will, I promise.  They just test and test and test at this age, they'll do it over and over just to see if the answer ever changes.  It is exhausting, I know I've been there (twice now) but if you're consistent he'll eventually learn.  The only other option is to somehow remove the temptation.  We have a few areas in our house that were just a pain to deal with so we put gates up to keep the kids out of that area or keep doors shut, can you block it off somehow?  If so, you could always block it for a while and then try again when he's a little older and is better at following instructions.  GL!

meganandchase

Agree with PP that right now your strategy has to be consistency (which I know is hard).  If the behavior continues until you start using the stove again, put some kind of gate around it.  

alexandrineblanc

The PD told me toddlers have no memory so you need to repeat all the time the same things so they learn. So be consistent. Good luck!

twounder2momma

meganandchase:

Agree with PP that right now your strategy has to be consistency (which I know is hard).  If the behavior continues until you start using the stove again, put some kind of gate around it.  

 

Definitely this! My 11 month old likes to go to my entertainment center and pull every single DVD case out of it..  So I try my best to block it off so that he may not get to it.. Also in my previous house (we moved when Jax was about 8 1/2 months old) we had a wood-burning stove surrounded by brick (was just for looks) that he LOVED to touch and pull up to.. It may sound crazy but to keep him from getting near it we put pillows around the brick and clothes baskets or whatever we could get to block it so that he couldn't get to it.. I didn't think I could find a gate big enough to fit around it.