Being Mean to Baby

N. at first he thought the baby was a visitor, and that one day he'd go away, that's way it was okay at first. However now you have to tell that is his baby, and he shouldn;t let no one hurt his baby. Get some one to role play with you, preffered some who does not live in the home. Get them to pretend like there are hurting the baby, so that he can see what he's doing. and than tell them no don't hurt the baby, and have him partake in protecting the baby. and than after that when ever he tries to hurt the baby, tell him no,,,,,,,, that's your baby, don't hurt him. P.s when you hit him as a result of the baby it build more resentment. He must be made to know what he's doing and that it's wrong.

Your two year old boy now feels threatened by your baby because he has moved into his territory. Before now he was immobile. He could not reach anything that was not given to him. Now he can move where he decides and can reach toys that your two year old may not want to share. Your two year old does understand some of what you are saying, even if he doesn't act like it. I would suggest talking about baby development so you can all get excited about the new phases your baby is stepping into. Keep working on sharing. Understanding that your two year old is the middle child and may be different form the others in many ways may help you work though things as well.

He is used to being the baby so he is jealous of all the attention the little one is getting. You may show them all equal love but more attention is on the baby just for he simple fact that the baby is a baby .. Try to get him involved and keep explaining to him that he's not a baby and he's a big boy and big boys help out . And also what you can do is take the 2yr old out by yourself , no other kids , just the 2 of you . The 2 of you going out alone will reassure him that you still love him like you love the others and he shouldn't feel that bad.

i AGREE WITH WHAT THE OTHER LADIES HAVE SAID AND IN ADDITION YOU NEED TO GET HIM INVOLVED IN THE CARE OF THE BABY. HELP TO FEED HELP IN THE BATH ECT. THIS WILL HELP HIM TO THINK OF IT AS HIS BABY TOO. YOU COULD ALSO GO TO THE STORE AND PICK HIM UP A DOLL SO THAT HE CAN TAKE CARE OF HIS AS YOU ARE TAKING CARE OF THE BABY. i WOULD ALSO SUGGEST THAT YOU HAVE MOMMY AND ME TIME. TAKE HIM SOMEWHERE ONCE A WEEK, TO GET ICE CREAM ,GO TO THE PARK OR SOMETHING. (JUST YOU AND HIM, ITS NOT ENOUGH TO ONLY LOVE THEM BOTH HE NEEDS TO KNOW HE IS STILL SPECIAL AND STILL YOUR BABY. ONLY THEN WILL HE NOT BE THREATENED BY HIS BABY BROTHER. GOOD LUCK TO YOU!! gOD BLESS!!

P.S. AS LONG AS THIS BEHAVIOR IS THERE MAKE SURE YOU KEEP A CLOSE CLOSE EYE ON HIM!!

I've read that more regression with siblings occur when baby's start to crawl, which surprised me. The older sibling is having his space invaded. And let's face it, sharing at that age is hard. I went through the motions with my kids at this age. We had a swap rule. If the baby has one of their toys we found another toy to swap with. They were not allowed to snatch toys from the baby. If they wanted to check out one of the baby's toys they could also swap. It is hard to see this in our kids but pretty normal. You definitly want to stay close to supervise during this phase.

We also had a baby doll for the kids and I would try and get them to help, like getting the baby a juice bottle or teething cracker(a bit soon perhaps but just around the corner)

I would try and let my kids overhear me praising them about something positive that they were doing with the baby. My one son who felt left out sometimes was great at making the babies laugh, so we always gave him credit for the first real laughing episodes. He used to roll himself up as a human taco and that was funny at the time.

Good luck,
LaurieK
www.mymonavie.com/LaurieK

N.,

I am going through the same thing, except my daughter (9 months old) just started walking and her 2 1/2 year old brother is having a really hard time with that. Crawling was a challenge, but walking has made it much harder, she can reach everything that used to be "his". Continue reinforcing the sharing. We also encourage our little guy to help "teach" his sister about things, like telling her colors when they are playing with a toy or telling her what things are, it has helped.

Good luck!