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Babies: 6 - 9 Months
XP: Discipline for an 8 month old?
(XP from sept 2010)
My kiddo is hitting when I take something away that he can't have. It seems as though he realizes - to an extent anyway - that this is wrong because he makes his little thinking annoyed face, hits, and then looks at me to see if he gets a reaction. How do you discipline an 8 month old? I tried looks of displeasure, saying "no," saying "that hurts mommy," holding his hand down and saying "no," denying attention/response to it. NOTHING is working and it's driving me crazy. He had a three hour temper tantrum tonight until he finally fell asleep. HELP!
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Re: XP: Discipline for an 8 month old?
You do not "discipline" an 8-month old.
You should be offering him something appropriate to play with at the same time you're taking the forbidden object away. Make it something good and distracting.
You should also be keeping the forbidden objects out of reach as much as possible.
Initially, I do say "uh-uh" to get his attention and get him to stop what he's doing -- it buys me time to grab something else and get to him.
A 3 hour temper tantrum is not normal for an 8 month old. In fact, it's not normal at any age.
PP was right in saying that you cannot discipline an 8 month old. You can only redirect and distract.
If your baby is coming into contact with that many items that you consider "off limits", you may want to up the baby-proofing in your home. Ideally, your baby needs space to explore that is safe, so that you don't have to constantly take things away.
Is it possible that he's teething and uncomfortable?
This was my first thought. Actually my second, after thinking that you cannot discipline an 8 month old baby.
OP, what are you doing for teething discomfort? Other than chilled teething rings, we find that putting barley teething biscuits or ice cubes in mesh feeders works very well!
This.
thanks for all your feedback! I have tried some re-directing but not too successfully, any tips? I usually just try to offer something he has been really liking but it only works about 50% of the time :-/ those of you who do this do you have a specific toy you use? or food?
and to answer the other concerns... he just recently finished teething for his second bottom tooth but does get tylenol when he exibits teething behavior for his upper teeth (drooling, hands in mouth while crying, being extra mouthy, etc). i kind of dismissed teething pain for tonight because he had received tylenol only an hour before, which definitely seemed to make him more comfortable.
and I agree that an 8 month old can't really be "disciplined" it may have been a lousy choice of words. i would never think to spank or put him in time out or anything silly like that because i know he wouldn't understand.Honestly I'm glad so many of you agree so I know that it's okay for me to not be too hard on him for grabbing at things he can't have.
and finally, i do know the baby-proofing is very important. there isn't anything "dangerous" in his play are in the living room that he can get to... mostly just things I don't want him to have. although in this case he got the speaker wire from behind the couch somehow. my dh moves the sound system around and i really need to get him to mount it so its not on the floor. it's not live unless it's mounted but i still don't want him touching it because i don't want him to think wires are ok to touch.
lol, this would make me nuts. i get that boys can be a handful but that doesn't mean they should be let run wild!
As far as good toys for redirecting: Right now it can be difficult. The toys he's been playing with for the past month or two have been fully inspected and wires and other things he hasn't been close to are far more interesting.
What has really worked for us are these little cars that my mom gave us. You pull them back, let them go and then they zoom across the room. He likes anything that moves independently, really, and he wants to crawl across the room to it.
(The website says you can get them at Target.)