Nov 2, 2005

The Big D (Discipline, That Is)

How do you discipline a baby? Do you even try?

These are questions that my group of mom friends and I have been asking ourselves and each other now that our babies are mobile and getting into all kinds of trouble. Here is what Babycenter's expert has to say on the topic (basically, 7 to 9 months is too early). What he says makes sense to me, since Alex is 7 months old and I can tell that he knows there are some things he shouldn't touch, but he also doesn't understand the concept of "no" yet. However, an older baby we know clearly understood the concept of "no" at 9 months and loved to push the boundaries set by his mommy - in this situation, discipline (but not punishment) is appropriate.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our daughter is almost 10 months old now. She definitely understands the concept of "no," as she cries when we use that term. I think we've been doing this for over a month, so we started on the early side.

At this point just taking her away from the thing she's after is enough discipline, but we're getting firmer as she tests the boundaries more.

ChiefFamilyOfficer said...

Thanks, MBH. Good luck - my friend with the baby who kept (keeps) testing her says that it only gets harder!