My toddler vomits on purpose

[ronx]

My son is nearly 2yrs and 3 months old and he's got one nasty habit.

He makes himself sick if you tell him off or make him do something he doesn't want to do. He starts crying and will then begin to either cough a lot or put his fingers in his mouth.

This morning he puked up his morning milk because he wanted to wear a nappy rather than pull-up pants.

DH and I want to nip this in the bud, especially since we will have another baby to deal with from September. But we are running out of ideas on how to deal with this. We have tried being calm, telling him off and putting him on the naughty step.

My mum's tip is basically to give him what he wants, but we don't want to end up with a child who thinks it's OK to be sick to get what his way.

Help!

You mustn't give him what he wants! That will just reinforce that vomiting works and he'll do it more.

You need to stop reacting altogether to the vomiting. He's discovered a really good method of calling attention to himself and making you worried about doing what he wants. Basically he's finding a way to control you.

If you don't comment on it, clear it up quickly and quietly and carry on as normal the reward for vomiting disappears. It's the same as ignoring a tantrum. You are withdrawing attention from the unwanted behaviour.

You need to couple this with offering praise when he's behaving well. Then he will learn that behaving well is rewarded with attention and behaving badly achieves nothing.

I know that ignoring a child spewing everywhere would be a test of patience for a saint but every time you react positively or negatively to it you are rewarding the behaviour.

HTH

We don't give him what he wants - we know that makes matters worse.

My dear old mum is another matter...

I put him on the naughty step at her house - and she went and sat on the step to keep him company.

you poor thing ronx

your mum sounds hard work too

Al1son is completely right

you need to ignore COMPLETELY

dont even act like it has happened

clear it up with zero comment whatsoever and carry on with whatever was going on

it is a form of tantrum and must be ignored, no negative or positive attention in any way

Yes - agree with the others. Nasty though!

We had this. Ignored completely, no sympathy, but not telling off either. It passed.

Another one with a vomiter. Agree with everyone else, clean it up and ignore it. It'll get better (and invest in lots of carpet shampoo in the meantime!)