The Earlier Your Baby Learns The Better For You!
Isn’t it a marvel to behold when you see your tiny tot understanding and being able to catch up with the nitty-gritty of being disciplined at that age where he or she would have not even learned how to utter a word. It is not just marvelous to imagine it but it can happen in reality.
If you are wondering how could a toddler understand what the parents are trying to imbibe in the child then you haven’t got it right. Toddlers do understand what they hear, watch and touch. Not just through words but they also understand and observe your gestures and facial expressions.
This article has for you all those effective ways that you can resort to in order to make your little baby and good baby teaching him/her to be disciplined and then pretty soon from there on you will see how well your baby will turn to be a good child and so on.
How to Discipline a Toddler
You need a direction to get on a new journey of set your own self as an example for your toddler. Remember this! Your baby knows, can sense and feels only the parents the best. Therefore as parents you have to give your baby the best guidance on getting disciplined.
Do not get too harsh on your baby, just give your best shot and whether it works our or not is immaterial. If it does not happen now it will happen at some point in life after this phase perhaps. There is no chance that your baby will not get disciplined, somewhere at some point your baby will learn it and you will be awe struck for having such a disciplined baby.
It is natural if your baby is not disciplined as a toddler, you do not have to feel like taking the roof on your head for that situation as babies are meant to be naughty and cheerful at that age, they will always be their age just like we are our age. To be able to understand that your toddler can be trained but should not be pushed too much. Here are some tips to discipline your toddler.
Tips No 1 – Teach your Baby to Pay Heed to You
Your Smile can Work Wonders!
This is certain that your toddler may not understand the meaning of words and sentences but he/she can identify what are your emotions through your expressions. They can sense, pain and happiness when they watch you.
The best way to begin with making your baby disciplined is to be nice to them and smile at them in a way that they notice you or look at you at least once. They have sharp observation skills and they always try to follow what you are doing. If you indulge in picking up messed things, they will watch you and try to absorb what you are doing.
What’s the knack: Your smile attracts them to watch you and they retain what they see. When they repeatedly watch you doing things, they will exactly do the same.
Tip No 2: Be Vigilant With Your Baby
You can discipline our toddler only when you give in time to watch what your baby is doing in order to understand what is it that you have to be cautious about. Babies love different sounds and there might be times that your baby gets too noisy when all at home are involved with an important discussion.
If your baby has a habit of picking what’s there on the table and tends to make noise all the time, you must see to it that you either grab your baby’s attention from there or change the place of where things are usually kept so that your baby has no access to those things and your baby would not be able to be too noisy.
It is just not in this context, only if you are watching on your child constantly will you know what to keep away from your child.
What’s the knack: When there is nothing on the table, it is but obvious that your baby might not have anything to pick or make noise with. In this case, your baby will at the most use his/her hands to bang on the table and there are no chances of anything breaking or scope for loud noise in that place.
Tip No 3: Give Your Baby The Right Things
Your baby is sure to be attracted to anything that’s new. Your child is not aware of the good and bad in things. But you as a parent know what can be the worst and best for your child. It is okay if you do not provide everything that your baby is attracted to.
At that phase of babyhood, the only way to instil a discipline of not being attracted to things not suitable for your baby’s age is by replacing your baby with better things.
For instance: In this busy world, you may give your phone to your baby so that he/she is distracted. This is where you are going wrong, instead of giving your baby things that are not meant for the baby’s age. Give him or she may be a colorful box or a toy that’s precisely meant for your toddler.
What’s the Knack: When your baby is used to being surrounded by what’s given to him or her. He/ she is just used to being around those things and is quite satiated. If you get your baby used to things not good for your baby, it will be a hard nut to crack to make your baby get over it.
Tip No 4: Set a Right Pattern For Your Baby
Setting right a perfect routine for your baby is essential and is a part of disciplining your baby. Having said that, your baby gets molded with how you get your baby used to a certain pattern.
Here are Few Ways To Set The Right Pattern For Your Baby.
- Do not get your baby used to being rocked to sleep all the time, leave your baby to sleep by himself/herself.
- Give your baby food that is healthy and bland and avoid getting your baby used to food that is too spicy or that can hamper your baby’s health.
- Get your baby used to sleeping early in the night and the way you can do so is by making the environment dark and peaceful.
- After your baby is 5 months you can get your baby used to sitting on the shit pot every one hour. Eventually, after a period of time, your baby will get trained.
In the initial months of infancy below 5 months, it is tough to get a baby accustomed to a particular pattern post that time frame it is good to set a right pattern for the baby.
What’s the knack: Your baby gets used to a good pattern that will sync with your pattern as well and as parents you would get to sleep when your baby is asleep, the more you get rest the better energy your have to take care of your baby.
Tip No 5: Get your Baby Accustomed To Hygiene
Your toddler is too small to follow hygiene at that age. It is in your hands to keep your child clean and keep him/her away from an unclean environment. Your child may tend to put his/her hands into anything that he/she sees, the only way to keep your child away is by carrying your child away from that place.
Some of the Hygiene Tips You Can Follow For Your Baby’s Cleanliness
- Make your baby wear clean clothes.
- Change your baby’s diapers frequently as that can cause rashes on your baby’s skin.
- Soak your child’s clothes in dettol.
- Your baby might tend to put things in his/her mouth, immediately remove things from your baby’s mouth.
- Cut your baby’s nails whenever you see it grow.
- Sterilize your baby’s things before your baby uses it.
Tip No 6: Set a Good Example
Your child is around the mother and father all day and your baby is taking in a lot from you. Your child may not be able to communicate with you but he/she observes you and accordingly tries to imitate your expressions.
When you try your best to keep your cool and always have a neutral expression on your face, your child will learn the same thing and it is useful for you in the long run.
What’s the knack: You do not want your child to make frowning faces. You want your baby to always be a cheerful one.
Tip No 7: Do Not Be Too Clingy All The Time
As parents it is natural that you would cling to your baby to keep him/her safe from falling down or getting hurt. It is okay to go and pamper your baby when he/she is hurt, but always protecting your child and staying around your baby will not give the baby a chance to know what’s dangerous and not.
This does not mean that parents should be careless and let their baby be trapped in any kind of danger. But it just means that you as parents should at least let your baby free in that part of the house where there is no major danger for the baby.
What’s the knack: When your baby falls or gets hurt he/she will understand what fear is on their own. It is important to let your baby free if you want him/her to nurture and get independent and understand what can be harmful
Tip No 8: Stop your Baby Without Being Harsh
Your baby is innocent and may like to fiddle with everything that he/she sees, your baby might pull, push and bite things and people, this is bound to happen. Being harsh or yelling at your baby is not a way to tackle with the situation. The right way to handle a situation is to stop your baby from pulling something or hitting someone whenever your baby does it. When you say no do not do it and say it with a serious expression your baby will understand it after a while. However, it is your duty to make him draw his lines.
What’s the knack: If you allow your baby to do whatever he/she wants, your baby tends to get habituated to it and bad habits die hard. So when your baby starts going to school it will get tough to stop him /her from indulging in bad habits.
Tip No 9: Teach Your Baby Good Manners
This is an effective tip to discipline your toddler. Your baby may just look at you, smile or just gaze at you when you talk. It is important that you remember that your baby may not be able to contemplate what you are saying but he/she can hear you and by watching you he/she can register everything that you say.
For instance: You could teach your baby how to shake hands. When you keep showing your baby how to shake hands and you say the word shake hands. Your baby would hear and watch you doing the action which gets imprinted in your baby’s mind and your baby knows what to do the next time you say shake hands.
What’s the knack: A baby learns all the good things step by step after constantly hearing and being told.
Every parent has to try different ways of disciplining their baby through the toddler phase. When a baby is between 0-3 months a parent has to let loose the baby as the baby is just born and the baby’s vision is not even clear.
When the baby is between 4-7 months a parent can touch base on setting the baby’s routine on eating and sleeping.When the baby is between 8-11 months, your baby is getting used to understanding fears, likes and dislikes. This is the right time a baby gets socially and emotionally developed. Primarily, parents must focus on disciplining their baby in this time frame, as the baby has a basic understanding.
Discipline your baby and give a thumbs up to parenthood!
– Neha Makhija
