NewMomExpress

Friday, June 01, 2007


THE REWARDS FOR CONSISTENCY WITH BABY

Sarah is almost 16mths old and for the past 1mth and a half, she had a home babysitter taking care of her.

Just today, her babysitter came to tell me about how cute Sarah was the other night before she went to bed. She said that Sarah was dozing off while drinking from her milk bottle as she was too tired from the day's activities. The interesting thing was that Sarah would wake up to drink some more before dozing off again. This happened a few more times until she had finished up all her milk, passed the bottle to her babysitter then promptly rolled over to sleep!

Her babysitter says that she will always finish her milk before passing it over to her.

As I think back on how she developed this good habit, I remembered the things I did when she was a little baby.

Every time I made her milk bottle, I would tell her that she needs to finish it up and not waste it. When she stopped or refused to drink anymore and wanted to play instead, I would wait about 5 minutes for her and then offer her the milk bottle again.
Most of the time she would drink it and then stop to play again. I would repeat this process until she finished her milk. Of coz there were times when I had made just too much milk for her. On such occasions I allowed her to finish what she could. Then I would be the wiser and make the right quantity for her at those times. By drumming into her the concept of finishing her milk and consistently ensuring it has resulted- in my opinion- this good habit now of finishing her milk (all 8-9 ounces of it) before moving on to anything else.

Similarly for the habit of keeping her toys before moving on to other things. Some people felt that I was too strict when I started enforcing the rule of keeping her toys before doing something else at about 10-11 months old. At that time, she had learnt the concept of "put back" and was quite good at it.

What I did was this: Once she finished playing with her toys, I would tell her," Ok now it is time to put back. Come, Mommy will help you put back. We must always put things back where they belong, ok?" I would then put the pieces into her hands and guide her hand to put it back in the box. She would put one in and I would put one in. It took a long time but I made cleaning up another activity. As she got more adept at putting things back, I let her do it herself and I would instruct her to put her toys back first before doing other things. Sometimes to reinforce the instruction, I would point to the toy in question and say "Put back" and point to the place it should go to.

There are times when playful Sarah decides to push her limits and see whether mommy really enforces it. She would scuttle off somewhere and conveniently leave her flash cards everywhere on the floor. Now most of the time, her grandma and aunt would keep for her, but when I am around, she would not be able to escape. So I would walk over to her and remind her that she has to "put back" her toys first. I would then hold her hand and bring her back to the messy place and say "mommy help you, we keep together ok?" Even if it is just 1 card she keeps, it is a positive step and I encourage her with a "great job Sarah!"

Now, when she plays, she will keep her toys herself. On playful days, I need only to remind her to put back or close the door and she will do it. On really naughty days, I will use my angry voice and put the toy in her hand and guide her firmly to keeping it. She will whine and complain but she gets the idea.

So parents, consistency is the key! Even if you are in a rush for time, having baby keep just 1 card while you keep the rest is considered a job well done.


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