discipling for babies

[heatherlynn22]

i know that at 8 months babies don't comprehend what's a no no and what is ok to do but...is there a way to get them to understand that there are certain things they can and cannot play with? eli seems to listen to dh and i when we tell him no no in our stern mommy and daddy voice and stops what he's doing and starts doing something else. brett, however, ignores us. and he goes for EVERYTHING he's not allowed to touch. we have our computer in the living room and with that, all the gaming systems, electronics and what not there are wires along one wall. he's always trying to chew and play with them. we tell him no, he'll ignore us, we tell him no again, he ignores us. so then we smack his had, tell him no and move him. then he goes right back to them or he'll go to the coffee table and start pulling everything off (which wouldn't bother us but the coasters we have are hard, heavy ceramic and we don't want him to hurt himself or end up pulling off on of our glasses especially mine because i'm usually always drinking hot tea or coffee) we tell him no, smack his hand and move him but he doesn't seem to be phased by it and keeps on doing it.

is there any other way we can get him to understand or to know that it is bad or is it something we'll have to just watch until he's older?

[heatherlynn22]

oh brett....he is just. he's something else. sometimes i think he does the "no no's" just to see the veins in hubby's neck pop out. because then he starts to laugh.

[Kat_624]

That is too funny!  It's times like that when you wish you had a camera rolling at all times to capture this stuff!

My kids have gotten into the cat's food when I'm not looking as well.  I don't really have a good place to put the cat's dish, so half the time I end up putting it on top of the dining room table during the day.  Gross, huh?!  of course i always move it back to the floor when we have company over...LOL!

[heatherlynn22]

oh curiosity usually gets the best of brett. he gets into EVERYTHING. even things that think he could never get into he does. like yesterday i had to get him from his crib. brought him downstairs put him on the floor with his toys and then went back upstairs to get eli. i was gone for MAYBE a minute. i come back downstairs he's playing in the cat food. now the cat food was NO WHERE near him. it was in the kitchen (my first clue that it's time to get baby gates). he was kneeling next to it....eating it. i couldn't help but laugh because he just looked at me and giggled.

[Kat_624]

My twins are 22 months now and I still have to watch them like a hawk.  I've eliminated almost everything from my living room that I felt was potentially dangerous, but it's still a challenge.  At this point, they drag chairs around the house and use them to climb on things and reach higher areas.  I feel like broken record, because I'm always saying 'no, no...not safe!"  I do give 'time-outs' on occasion now, but they didn't really understand what that meant until about 18 months.  I'm afraid you have a few more months before you'll be able to really control their curiosity urges!!  Hang in there!

[heatherlynn22]

we've tried covering the wires. he's a smart boy. he remembers where things are lol. he's actually moved stuff we have there and still gotten to the wires. we've even tried hiding them under the carpet. but once we put the wires under the carpet the edge pulls up and he pulls it all the way up and gets to those wires.

the coasters...i don't know why changing them never occured to me before. lol. that we can do. when dh goes to the store wednesday i'll have him look for kid friendly coasters that won't hurt if they fall on his head.

[Ally484]

I would eliminate any possibility of those things happening by covering the wires over somehow, a box or some kind of protector, and change yr coasters to more child friendly ones for the time being. It is hard to get an 8 month old to understand the dangers so I guess it would be up to you to prevent any dangerous problems for now.