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Monday, April 4, 2011

The art of time outs


 I’m having issues with my 19 month old daughter biting!  She does this out of frustration when she doesn’t have the words to say what see needs.  I then tell her to say “help please” in hopes that she’ll remember next time.  Sometimes yes, other times the concept seems lost!

Biting her back is a method I’ve heard that I don’t agree with.  Using violence for discipline is not going to be a long term deterrent, it’s just a short term remedy which reinforces violent behavior.  That means she react just the same way when she’s stressed later on.  I have tried to use the time out method with good success.  She gets a 1 minute time out and she realizes the consequence.  There are arguments that this subliminally sends the message that the place of time out is a bad place.  There are obviously bad places to do this in such as a crib, because that’s where she sleeps!  I’ve concluded the crib should only be used for sleep times; therefore, I have the playpen setup with blankets, stuffed toys, and placed in the living room corner just in case the need arises for a time out.  By the time she’s tall enough to climb out, we’ll have a strong foundation of boundaries established.  Like no biting!

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