Protecting baby from older sister

[handlemecarefully]

So far dd (21 months) has cuffed newborn ds around the head, tried to bite his foot, attempted to smother him by getting into his moses basket with him, trashed his moses basket when he wasn't in it (well at least tried to)and lobbed missiles at him. I'm not angry with dd for this - she knows not what she does!

At the moment its not too problematic as mum is staying for a few weeks to help me - so we can ensure constant supervision of them both. But I'm worried about what I'll do when its just me. It will be a right royal pain in the arse to have to lug ds around with me constantly, when answering the door / telephone / taking a pee etc in order to protect him from his sisters tender ministrations!

Any solutions? - midwive suggested a playpen to put ds in...but that wouldn't stop my dd from hurling missiles into it or perhaps finding some ingenious way of breaking in. What have you done in similar situations?

We're going through this (2yr 3month gap) The 'violence' escalated for the first 2 months but then tailed off - made sure that I gave baby lots of attention and did 'time out' (lack of attention to toddler), and carried baby with me if I needed to do something (got a huggababy sling - easy to pop baby in and out of) If it seemed easier then persuading toddler to come and leaving baby.
It got a lot easier once baby was smiling, but even with masses of supervision 'accidents' still happened (ds hit baby hard on the head with a beaker when I was holding baby and ds was standing next to me..no warning just bam!).
I now have more problems with him trying to pick up the baby for a cuddle or cuddling her too hard and scaring her than throwing stuff at her/ hitting her (although he did keep balancing his empty cup on her head this afternoon I ignored it since it couldn't hurt her).

Good luck!!!

My two have exactly the same age difference and the same way round sex wise. I never left them in the same room together alone and yes it was a pain to have to cart DS around everywhere.

I tried not to make too much of a fuss about it as I didn;t want DD to feel even more put out than she already was. Thing is she really loves her little brother but I don't think she really got the point of him when he was a new baby!

Good luck and congratulations on your new arrival!

I have a much bigger gap so I haven't been through this, but what about using putting him in a sling ? I got a Hugabub for the school run as I desperatly needed my hands free & it was brilliant, hardly noticed he was there!

I have a 22 month gap between two dd's....it was hell for the first few months but it does get better! I think, as said earlier, try (near impossible at times, especially when you see it is deliberate!) to not make too big a fuss....as they quickly learn to be disruptive for attention! Other option is to take toddler out of the room sometimes (to answer the door) not the baby!