PDA

View Full Version : Crawling & re-directing


Linnis
08-17-2007, 04:32 PM
My almost 10 month old is on the move. No stopping him now. Normally I do my best to do a quick pick up before I let him on the floor. I also put down a sheet or large blanket(This is not blanket training or anything it's just for cleanliness and carpet burn on knees) with his toys on it. He will however find something more interesting, like books etc. I can't move everything above the door knobs.

So when he gets into something I pick him up and say "Not yours." and put him back in the middle of the blanket with an acceptable toy. He cries every single time. So I'll play with said toy long enough for him to want it and to reaffirm those are not his but these are.

Now when I see him going towards them I say "E*****, are those yours?" and he laughs and somethings he goes back to the toys sometimes not and I have to remove and distract.

DH thinks I should let him cry and that he'll never learn as I'm 'rewarding the behavior with a toy'.

SouthPaw
08-17-2007, 05:01 PM
Yes, you are definitely rewarding the behavior of sitting on the blanket, by giving a toy to him when he is on the blanket.

Bet that's not what your DH expected to hear :shifty

Anyway, aside from that minor point, the main thing is you are protecting your household goods, and the baby is gently learning that mommy means what she says. You're doing just fine.

Linnis
08-17-2007, 05:06 PM
So should I sit him on the blanket with the toy and walk away even if he's crying? :shrug

AmyDoll
08-17-2007, 07:38 PM
Well, if he's wanting to get a book - I usually hand Nicholas one of his books and say, "Here's your book, baby! Lets read :)" or if he's pulling stuff out of some place that he shouldn't be - I give him a box of his toys and redirect him to that.

The rule in our house AFA crying is "No one cries alone"

railyuh
08-17-2007, 11:38 PM
I would sit down with him on the blanket and try to get him engaged in something, a toy, a book, etc.

But we honestly really did try and move everything out of his reach if it was something we definitely didn't want him playing with. It's hard, but also a relief for me so I didn't have to keep redirecting all day long. For some things it meant I decided I didn't care if he got into the bottom 2 shelves of books (so I moved books around so that the bottom shelves were mostly full of his books and toys and what other books were down there would be ok if he got into them briefly--and for my DS, he really just wanted to pull everything off the shelves. After that he wasn't interested in going through the books and never ripped pages or anything like that, so I'd put the books back and he'd take them down again, it was almost a game for us). For other things, it meant we gated off the kitchen so I didn't have to keep pulling him away from the cat's food and water.

And the other bonus was that it helped me to really declutter and find a place to put things away instead of having stuff out in the open (which drives me crazy, just a personal thing).

canadiyank
08-19-2007, 11:04 PM
Sounds great...distraction is a wonderful tool and will be helpful for years to come. You are teaching him what is and isn't acceptable, not rewarding. Remember, at this age, you have to discipline a million times...discipline is teaching. You *could* punish, but you'd still have to teach him what *to* do. This is the age of seriously doing it over and over and over and over. Then he'll start to walk and climb and get on tables and counters and pull CDs down, etc. :giggle And it's more redirection. That's just what they do...although after the 12th time in a row it gets pretty tiresome!

Eventually they will learn, though, and a verbal instruction will often be enough. But now it's about verbal direction (perhaps "hands off") combined with physically moving him and redirecting him to something he can do. :yes