Toddler and our new baby

[mhorne]

Need help! I have an 18mth old DD who has always been a well behaved baby. I now have a 4 wk old boy and she is tormenting him! She is only interested in him and half the time is great and gives him kisses etc. I put him into a crib which is in our living room during the day but my DD is constantly prodding and hitting him. When I try to tell her off she laughs at me. I have tried distraction and time outs and she just grins at me and goes back to harass my DS. I know I will end up losing it with her soon and I really don't want to get to that point. I also have the added problem that I broke my leg when I was pregnant and I am still on crutches most of the day. My DD knows I can't chase her and plays up when I am feeding my DS eg running up and down the sofas. Advice needed.

can i recommend a playpen or travel cot. Your 18month old shouldn't be able to get to the baby and you can safely leave the room.

I think a playpen or travel cot would be a great idea too!

Ditto Katzgut we had our travelcot downstairs so that when we wanted to put DD2 down she was safe.

Yes definitely considering that. I am concerned she is going to feel that she is being punished just for being in the same room as him. I was thinking of using it for timeouts though.

i would put the baby in the playpen/travel cot, thats what we do with our 3 week old DD2, it keeps her safe from the blind dog! and our overly loving DD1 (2.8).

I used to put my DS in the playpen out of reach of his 19 mth old sister as well! She was desperate to get in there but couldn't mange to scale the sides!

My midwives and HVs both recommended putting DS2 upstairs for naps, if DS1 got too interested.

I remember feeding could be quite hard-going. I tried all the tricks - videos/television/books/snacks - sometimes with some success ! The "we will do X" (something DS1 liked doing) "after I have fed DS2" also occasionally got results. It does get easier.

maybe you could use the travel cot as a punishment if she keeps misbehaving when you are feeding baby,i seen this done on one of those little angels programmes.Its sort of like time out or maybe she will think it is good to be in the babies bed!!

Our big feeding trick was to all lie in bed together, with the baby in the middle. I'd bf the baby, and read a book to DS1 at the same time. We called it "reading and feeding", and it was very popular in those early days when the baby wanted to feed constantly.