how on earth do you stop a baby causing mayhem?

[jimblejambles]

Ds2 is nearly 9 months, has been crawling since 6.5 months and is happily cruising the furniture.
The problem is he is really into everything- pusshing buttons, climbing the tv stand and the fire place, pulling wires and generally anything dangerous.
He has already developed selective hearing and when I say no he just gives me a smile and carries on.
I pick him up say no and move him away from whichever dangerous thing he is doing but he just goes back.
I am not sure if ds1 was just a little angel and ds2 is a normal boy.
I am worried he is going to get hurt (we have already been thru falling off the bed and down 2 stairs)
My MIL says I am doing something wrong repeatedly and its starting to knock my confidence

Sounds perfectly normal to me I'm afraid! All you can do is move things up high, or block them off, and develop eyes in the back of your head. What does MIL think you should be doing about it? Her generation maybe tended to have playpens for this age group, so never had to deal with it in the same way.

Things like stairgates can limit the possible damage they can do themselves, but apart from that you can really only make sure he doesn't get up onto anything he could fall off, or grab anything which could harm him.

I had one like that - BIL and SIL criticised us (and still do) but he just seems to be an 'into everything' child. He climbs as well so has to be watched constantly. Our dear niece still isn't crawling at over a year old and sits there placidly smiling at everyone - I think all babies are different (oh and am wishing the other sort on BIL next time evil evil)

jimble jambles.

i'm in similiar situation. ds was not much of a terror. when i said no he left alone. by the age of one he was putting things in the bin when i told him and generally didn't get up to much bother.

however dd is a terror. she's copying everything ds is doing now (he's at toddler stage of jumping on beds) she's only 11 months and wild. when i tell her no she throws herself to the floor and has a fit.

i try to ignore it, however ds gives in to her.

e.g if he does something she doesn't like, or is eating something she wants. she throws a fit and he gives her it. i'm constantly rushing around taking things off her he has given her thats unsuitable.

trouble is she's now giving him ideas. the other day she climbed onto sofa and showed him how to jump off on to a bean bag.

We have a playpen for our 14 month old little boy. When I put him into it it is only for 20 mins to half an hour once and at the very most twice a day.
When he's not in it, he has the run of the house - and is into everything!!!!!
A playpen is the only way I have of getting ANYTHING done SAFELY(eg having a shower or making dinner)but it also forces him to play independently with his many toys.

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Ignore your silly MIL. How does she think babies learn about their environment? This is how they do it. If babies never tried things repeatedly, were all instantly put off by 'no' and just sat there being 'good', the human race would die out!
When your lively and inquisitive baby is touching something you don't want him to you either put it somewhere he can't reach somehow, or you don't just take him away and say 'no' you have to distract him with something else that will hold his attention for a few moments, or play a game with him. Which I know is a nightmare if you are trying to get anything done.

thank you
I feel much better now. Apart from the daredevil tendencys he is a delight and its really nice to know he is normal and there are other babies the same.
I will ignore all future comments from mil.

Perfectly normal. At 9 months he wont understand 'no' and certainly has no concept of danger. He may be startled by your tone of voice but won't really know what you mean yet

Be super vigilant, close doors to rooms you don't want him in and use stair gates

and agree, you MILs a tit, tell her to but out OR give her your ds for an afternoon in her house!

my ds is and was the same: we did a lot of saying 'no' and now while he doesn't always actually stop, he clearly does know what it means and it at least slows him down for a millisecond to think about it which sometimes enables you to get between him and the dangerous object. just put everything possible out of reach and be prepared to do a lot of 'no' - remove child - watch child go straight back to whatever he was doing before - 'no' again and remove again - child goes straight back - you say 'no' again - repeat about 20 times and eventually it will have a result!
console yourself with the fact you have a lovely active interested curious baby who is getting to grips with the world around him (so i used to tell myself through gritted teeth). the one saving grace is because they're so interested in everything, babies like this are a bit easier to distract with something else equally interesting but not quite as dangerous.
at this age he would still go in a playpen in an emergency for a bit and twas a lifesaver. but by 10/11 months or so that was over.

DS also like this. He is now nearly 5 and his teacher comments that he is 'always busy' .

Get cupboard locks, stair gates, safety film for any glass, corner softeners etc. They do help, but still don't completet;y prevent it, but at least you have done all you can. Just make sure you can always see him.

I am having the same problem with my DD (never thought that I would need to baby proof everything already - she is 6.5months and crawls, pulls herself up on furniture, walks when holding our hand etc)

I have a curious 10 month old.

Much to my horror I have really started to appreciate soft play places. There are two near us with small toddler sections. It doesn't deal with the issue at home of her always fancying the most dangerous/unstable objects to pull up on but it does give us both a chance to let her roam free without me hauling her away from things or hovering behind her all the time.

DS (11.5m) is just like this - I hadn't even considered it could be anything other than normal!

We're as babyproof as possible here but it's an uphill struggle because he's determined to get into everything. The other day DP had to rescue him from the tiny gap between the sofa and the desk because he'd got in head first and wedged himself. Probably just trying to find a way to get into the desk cupboard because he knows the camera, x-box controllers and various items of value are secreted there. He's made it to the landing in a split-second (on DP's watch, again, not mine!) and he's learned to undo our various additional high-chair restraints. He phoned MIL and left her a heavy-breathing voicemail the other day. Given a spare second he heads straight for the dogs' water bowl and tips it. Last weekend he was having a nice crawl on the lawn and managed to locate and try to swallow the only two small boulders in a 20 metre radius. He has, this afternoon, removed all the nicely folded clothes from the washing basket, unfolded them and placed them in artful arrangements on the floor. That was after systematically removing all the books from the bookshelf (screwed to the wall, of course!) for the nth time this week.

If we didn't have a travel-cot-cum-playpen either he'd be injured or worse or we'd be insane, most likely both.

I am dreading when he walks. [pale emoticon]

We're not babyproofed, at home I put him in the playpen, his cot, his highchair or just leave him in the buggy for a few minutes. CM has had to put a gate across the entrance to her kitchen and apparently spends a lot of time chasing him around her place. We also take him out to the park nearly every day (weather permitting), and before I went back to work from maternity leave I also tried to take him somewhere every day so that he could be places with space to play.