Hellobee Boards

For some reason, I can't remember what it was, but DS1 had some terrible thing he did during meals at that same age that was driving me batty. Um, maybe not a great solution, but I had to resort to scaring him, basically.

He was really afraid of our cordless vacuum for some reason and would crawl away screaming like greased lightning whenever I used it (which was often because he threw Cheerios or crumbs everywhere), so whenever he did the weird thing at meals, I would sternly say "don't do that or Mommy is going to get the vacuum." When he repeated the action, I would get up and get the vacuum and set it next to me. Then if he did it a third time, I would turn the vacuum on for a few seconds while he thrashed in the high chair and flipped out. If he did it again, I would turn the vacuum back on. He got the correlation pretty quickly - like within a day or two. After that, it was enough to go get the vacuum and set it next to me and he would stop it.

I just figure that these stages pass as quickly as they come up. My girl is now 10.5 months and she doesn't do the blowing raspberries while eating often anymore. I can't think of the last time she did it. And that now makes me sad! So hopefully your LO will just pass though this soon enough. Or else I like the vacuum idea!!

@gingerbebe: our little guy loves the cordless vacuum. We would use it around his chair and then close enough to his legs to feel the sunction. He is all giggles anytime we use it.

When LO started throwing things at meal time we just took them away. For a little while we would just transfer his food directly on his high chair. If he threw his actual food it signaled to us mealtime was over.

DH gets flustered with LO constantly rubbing his eyes and hair after handling his food. He pushes his hands down and is constantly wiping them off. I have started repeating we put food in our mouths when he does this. Eventually I think he will stop.

@PinkElephant: She's also so young, but I think 3rd babies probably pick cues up sooner? I would expect that call and response type behavior from a 15+ month old. I think you have a baby genius on your hands!

Sometimes when LO is doing something that bothers me (but isn't unsafe), I'll just acknowledge her and not give it more attention, "Yeah, I see that you are blowing bubbles in your water.", and then I quickly move onto a different topic of conversation. She feels seen, but also knows it doesn't bother me at all (because my kid likes to do things when she knows it bothers me).