Still never a dull moment!
I know. I need a new title.
Since I'm still not working (grrr!!!), I usually have Katelynn home on Fridays. Last Friday I noticed she had a bad runny nose. It looked like she was coming down with a cold. Saturday she rubbed her eyes all day. Sunday she had yellow gunk coming out of her eyes. Matt and I were wondering what in the world was wrong. So we loaded the WebMD page and the symptoms seemed to indicate pink eye.
So I called the doctor first thing Monday morning and told them I thought she had pink eye. They wanted me there in 20 minutes. Katelynn was ready, but I was not. We came in about 40 minutes later, and interestingly enough, I did not have to wait too long to see the Nurse Practitioner. Everyone else in the waiting room just "had" to see the doctor working that day. I didn't care. The NPs at our doctor office are top notch.
After much screaming on Katelynn's part, our NP said she had a cold, an ear infection and pink eye. Most likely the cold rapidly morphed into the ear infection and the pink eye. We left the doctor's office to go to the grocery store pharmacy with 2 prescriptions in hand. It was amazing though. Katelynn was as pale as could be, at least to me, she looked sick. She still managed to smile and giggle at all the people around her and several of the grocery store staff broke out into grins and laughter as they waved to her. She was just eating up the attention! Even on a not so good day, she's adorable!
She's been on her medication for 4 days now and she is now back at daycare. After 24 hours of being on the eyedrops she is considered no longer contagious for pink eye and she's allowed to return to daycare. That could have been yesterday but daycare was closed for obvious reasons.
By Tuesday she was pretty much back to her old self...pulling out the dining room chairs so she could climb and stand on them, tugging at electrical cords, basically running amuck. So Matt and I are getting a crash course in toddler discipline. I don't mean discipline in the form of corporal punishment, but gently and firmly guiding her to do things the way you're supposed to. When she climbs on the chairs I stand next to her and if she stands up, I sit her back down and tell her that chairs are for sitting in not standing and rocking. I figure enough repetition and her behavior will change. I'm also signing "No" and "No touch" to her when she pulls on electrical cords or makes a beeline for Matt's telescope. She has cried when I signed that to her, but I took her away from the situation, gave her a hug and some reassurance that Mommy still loved her but didn't want her to get hurt. Then I distracted her with some toys.
I don't know if I'm doing this the right way. I really feel like I'm winging it. It has, however, given me new appreciation for my own parents and what they went through with 4 kids. Any thoughts, ideas or stories on toddler discipline, I'd love to hear them, so don't be shy!
Here are two pictures from yesterday. Katelynn loves her new wagon. She wanted to stand on it so Matt had to take it away from her because she kept bumping her head. We just want her to be safe!
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| Katelynns wagon |
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toddler tips
2 comments:
What you're doing sounds exactly right to me. She's not old enough that she needs a lengthy explanation of why she can't do something. Just saying "no" or "no touch" is sufficient, and distracting her (or "redirecting" her) to a more appropriate activity is excellent.
We started giving MG time outs at about 11 months for things that could hurt her or someone else (particularly pinching the dog and biting). She didn't really "get it" but now she will (usually) go to the step and sit down when I tell her she has a time out. She's going to be 2 next month. You only want to give them one minute for each year they are old.
Basically the purpose of a time out is to get them removed from the situation so they can calm down and make better choices, not to punish them. So, you say, "You have a time out," and lead them to the step (or wherever). You repeatedly tell them to sit down and stay there (get a timer) until the time is over. If they get up, the timer stops, and no one can have any fun or do anything until the time out is fulfilled. (This helps with the whole, "I'm not going to do it," thing - you don't want to restrain them, but you want to make it worth their while to do it so they can get back to the fun). Once the time out is over, you tell them why they had it, in simple terms that they can understand ("I had to give you a time out for biting the doggie. That is not safe. We do not bite the doggy. I love you. Let's go do something else.")
Like I said, we save time outs for egregious offenses. Smaller things are met with a "no" and redirection. The older she gets, the more you can explain things to her, but for now the answer is, "Because I'm the Mom and I said so!"
P.S. Glad she's feeling better! Summer colds are no fun!!
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