is it ok to gently 'discipline' a 10mth DS

[milkyman]

my boistrous ds is beginning to have a mind of his own (good i know) however i can c he is starting to have little tantrums if he doesnt get his own way! i know this is normal but when did u start saying 'no' or 'gentle' does it work?

I say both these things to my DD. She certainly understands 'no' and will stop doing something if I say it firmly. If she goes to do it again, I will say no again. If she does it a 3rd time I will say no and pick her up to move her away from whatever dangerous activity she's attempting!

I also say 'gentle' and then show her how to stroke the cat/touch my hair without pulling! I'm not sure she gets this one!

I would say that if you are going to say "no" etc you can't expect her to understand it without being shown what it means. So "no" accompanied by moving her away from the thing she's not meant to be doing. And don't expect her to "get it" for months and months. But keep persisting and eventually she'll get it.

Welcome the really hard work!

Oh goodness, opened this thread thinking it was going to be far more harsh when you said 'discipline'.

Absolutely, 10 month old hitting you with a rattle quite hard, remove from hand and say no with a semi-stern face.

sorry discipline probably wasnt the right word!

I use "no" for my 8.5mo DS. Usually when he's pulling people's hair, noses, ears etc. or generally just causing mischief around the house

However, he thinks its hilarious he gets into fits of giggles every time I tell him no

You're talking about boundaries not discipline in my opinion! And yes, boundaries are a good thing. Even if he might not understand it now, he will only start understanding it if you're consistent and stick to your guns.

Especially at that age though, I did always try to avoid saying "no" in isolation otherwise it becomes a meaningless word. Rather try to redirect and explain. So for example if DS pulled the cat's fur, I'd take his hand and stroke the cat with it while saying "gentle petting" or something like that.

First clear thing my ds said was "no-ds's-name". I suspect he actually thought the word 'no' was a part of his name

But agree with everyone else - never too early to put boundaries in place... you'd want them to know that putting fingers into a fire or a dog's mouth was definitely not allowed, wouldn't you ?

You might be better distracting and not leaving things around for temptation. Otherwise all you'll be saying is no so when you really need "no" to work, it won't as you're always saying it.