My son, the Tasmanian Devil...

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Permalink Reply by Michele on October 23, 2009 at 12:23pm

I had the same problem with 3rd child. Maybe it's a 3rd child thing. LOL! He also does not respond well to discipline. What he does respond to is positive reinforcement. Now at 1, your son may be a tad young to really get it, but it's always a great time to start. Whenever you see him doing something good, let him know. Even if it's as small as handing someone a toy instead of throwing it.

Now when he does yell, spit, etc, get down on his level and tell him that is not ok and redirect him to something else. Discipline is tough at age 1, but redirection often works better. You aren't going to see changes quickly, but he will slowly (and often very slowly) begin to learn that he will not get attention from doing the bad stuff and will get attention when he does the good stuff.

Kids will do whatever they can to get attention even if it means being bad. We found my 3rd child doing less of the bad stuff once we stopped drawing a lot of attention to it (by disciplining) and we started drawing more attention to the positive things he does.

If you have any other questions, let me know. Hope that helps some.

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Permalink Reply by Carissa on October 23, 2009 at 12:25pm

On of my twins did this...it was REALLY bad. We tried ignoring him and it just got worse. What finally stopped it was putting him in the pack and play until he was 100% done. I would go and ask him "Are you done yet?" and he would behave that way again and I would walk away. There was one day it took him 4 hours -- yep four hours in a small space with NO toys, after that day it went down hill fast. We still have the issues but now they are much less frequent! Good luck! I hope something you get here helps!

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Permalink Reply by Krystal L. Grant on October 23, 2009 at 12:27pm

Ok, so maybe he'd doing all the spitting and stuff to get attention. Not because he's angry. Hellooooo? Why didn't I think of that. Maybe he wants his brother and sister to pay more attention to him. He does do a lot more yelling, fighting and spitting when they are all "playing" together. I'll try some positive reinforcement. Thanks Michele!

Michele said:

I had the same problem with 3rd child. Maybe it's a 3rd child thing. LOL! He also does not respond well to discipline. What he does respond to is positive reinforcement. Now at 1, your son may be a tad young to really get it, but it's always a great time to start. Whenever you see him doing something good, let him know. Even if it's as small as handing someone a toy instead of throwing it.

Now when he does yell, spit, etc, get down on his level and tell him that is not ok and redirect him to something else. Discipline is tough at age 1, but redirection often works better. You aren't going to see changes quickly, but he will slowly (and often very slowly) begin to learn that he will not get attention from doing the bad stuff and will get attention when he does the good stuff.

Kids will do whatever they can to get attention even if it means being bad. We found my 3rd child doing less of the bad stuff once we stopped drawing a lot of attention to it (by disciplining) and we started drawing more attention to the positive things he does.

If you have any other questions, let me know. Hope that helps some.

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