Oh the whining......

Roxie5739 · October 2014

It is about to sent me over the edge.....

LO whines a lot! For no reason I can tell, and he really tries to squeeze out the tears some times. What can I do to get him over this? It is just a phase or something I need to nip in the but now to save problems later. We just finished swimming class, he cried every time the teacher came near him and whined all the way through the clothes change and ALL the way home.....

= I need any help I can get, for sanity sake.

mdiblasi10 · October 2014

Do you do any sign language with him? Is he saying some words? Even though G is over two and using words and sentences, he will still whine sometimes. At this age, we ask him to use his words and he does. Most of his whining is him trying to communicate something he wants. Before that, I would reinforce the sign or word or request he was trying to communicate with whenever he would whine. One key thing I tried to remember was to not reward the whining, because if whining works, they will keep doing it.

This article helped us too: https://www.babycenter.com/0_whining_11576.bc Good luck!! The toddler phase is tough.

TJ1979 · October 2014

Oh yeah, that's a fun stage. Like @mdiblasi10 mentioned, it got much better when E was able to communicate more. Before that, I would try to have her show me what it is that she wants/needs.
Also, don't forget that your LO understands a lot more than he is able to communicate. So don't be afraid to sit down and explain things to him. For example, dinner time was always E's biggest whiny periods. She was tired from DC, and just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed. She didn't understand why it took SOOOOO long for food to get on her plate. Finally one day I picked her up and showed her the cooking process. I held her and let her watch MH cut up the meat and veggie. I explained what they were and that they were raw. Then I showed her the skillet (explaining how hot it was and we have to be very, very careful.) Then I let her watch daddy throw the food into the skillet and watch as it cooked and daddy stirred it around. Then I got her play food and cooking utensils from her play kitchen and let her play along. Seeing the process helped her understand and be more patient.
Oh... and we bribed her with goldfish, cheerios, fruit, etc. also. I felt awful doing it, thinking we were spoiling her dinner and failing as parents. But she doesn't seem terribly scarred by it, and it helped both her and us get through the rough patches.
GL. It does get better.

Mrs.AmyDylan · October 2014

Ugh. We are whine central. We are also entering tantrum time. We spent almost 30min of a 45min gymnastics class throwing a rolling on the ground tantrum. Followed by biting mommy when I tried to move her. I have a headache. Sigh.

Roxie5739 · October 2014

Thanks, hearing I am not alone here makes me feel better and sad for you too. We don't do sign language, well, we only do more so I will try to add a few more to help. I got an email today from one of those baby websites and it had a few tips there about getting down on same level, making him understand how it sounds and ways to not let it foster into bigger issues. I will study on that tonight and see if I can work through this.

TJ1979 · October 2014

Roxie - I think one of the biggest signs that helped us out was teaching E the sign for "help." That way when she was frustrated with something because she couldn't make a toy or whatever work the way she wanted it to, we could understand what it was that she needed. And it was also a good reminder for us to get down on the floor with her and pay her some attention. Because a lot of the time, the whining was because we were busy trying to get dinner ready, etc. and she wanted attention. Sometimes dinner can wait 5 minutes, and that's hard for me to remember because I'm really big on structure and routine.

mcgeeva · October 2014

I would say it's definitely an age. And if they are the smallest bit over tired it's a nightmare! It will pass

But when it comes to swimming maybe it's anxiety being taken from you?

Roxie5739 · October 2014

We had good luck last night with getting down on his level and asking him to tell me or show me what the matter was. That helped some. I will look into the sign language again too. We definitely have some separation anxiety with him too so that is not helping.

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