This may be unrealistic, but a little guidance would be great. I am now watching our friends 15 month old and he touches EVERYTHING that is not a toy. Keyboards, DVD player, speakers, cords, Wii...I can't possibly put everything away when he comes. Is there any way to help him learn to not touch certain things?
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The only advice I can offer is make sure the most tempting things are out of his reach, and then make sure there are things he can play with or touch in plain view/on his level. At that age, the only thing that really works well is redirection.
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We did a lot of buzzer sounds when my son first started exploring things and touching what he isn't supposed to (we did not child proof). He's learned much of what is okay vs. not okay through repetition of that. Since this isn't your child and isn't there all the time, I would do my best to pick up the important things to the best of my ability and keep a close watch with plenty of redirection options for the rest of the time.
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My son learned "not for touching" and "not yours" pretty quickly. We have a cable that runs through the middle of our living room and he stopped finding it interesting after a few times.
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@Mrs. Yoyo: is a wise woman... redirection really helps!
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@pelikila: @brownie: Ooh! Like both of your ideas! Mentally bookmarking for the future! At what age did you start with these methods and they could start to understand?
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@mrbee: Haha, thanks.
We do "not a toy" with some success now, but like @pelikila says, stuff like that requires a lot of repetition to be effective. I just put a nightlight in the hall, for instance, and don't like him playing with it. After a couple days of "no, not a toy" he's *mostly* over it, but I still have to keep an eye out.
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I need to use these tips on my LO!
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Ok redirection is what we learned in the daycare, but I couldn't remember if there was any other ways to help with this issue. I put most things of what I could away, but like I mentioned, I can't possibly unhook all my electronics (DVD, Wii etc) everyday. I'm not sure what kind of rules he even has at home, but hopefully being here 3-4 days a week, he can learn what is ok to play with here and what is off limits.
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@shopaholic: he was 6 months old.
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@shopaholic: Once my son started crawling and reaching for things he previously couldn't reach without being mobile we started with buzzer sound or some other startling sound to catch his attention and startle him away from an item, which was about 10 months. But you can certainly start earlier. I preferred sounds to the word "no" because I didn't want him to start to tune out "no". A variety of sounds (buzzer, clapping, etc.) kept it interesting enough that he listened.
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What I started with was similar to @pelikila - we didn't want him to constantly hear "no", so we used other phrases and sounds. One that I would do when he was crawling toward something was I'd go "uh-uhuh" and shake my head. Now he crawls toward to the things he shouldn't and mimics the "uh-uhuh" and head-shaking, haha
I'll now pick him up and move him somewhere else, not sure what else to do? -
@Bao: We actually put baby gates around our TV set up for this reason. We didn't want to fight that battle so we put it up. They have some baby protector things you can use to cover buttons.
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I do shh sounds and buzzing sounds too when a child is going near something they shouldnt touch. I dont know how well it works long term since my baby is only 8 months but it seemed to work whenever my niece came to visit
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