I have a 2.5 year old little boy who thinks that spitting is okay, when he continues to spit at us or his brother he just laughs. ANY Suggestions on how to handle the spitting issue, time outs are not working, any advice would be helpful. thanks, A.
I want to thank all of you for your great advice, it is nice to know other moms are out there dealing with the same situation. I have started to use the soap in his mouth, he does not like it very much,but then he just laughs and spits again. I hope he will eventually get the idea that spitting is not nice and should only be done in the bathroom while we are brushing our teeth., thank you all, I will let you know what worked !
I know it's super hard, but I think ignoring would be the best. In fact, if he does it, walk away and talk with other people in the room. If no attention is given, then it won't be as fun. Brother has to be on board too!
Hi A.,
Try a swig of VINEGAR! It doesnt have the chemicals that soap has and it VERY high on the YUCKY scale for children!
Mary-A.
A.--
My daughter, now 4, used to spit as well. Who knows where she learned it???? It used to frustrate and anger me till no end. It was embarassing. She spit on me once but missed me and hit a woman in line in front of me. It was awful!
I know you will hate to hear this but if you can ignore it, it WILL go away! We used to do time outs, take toys away, etc. NOTHING worked. Then we started to ignore it, they do it to get attention. And we now laugh about it, "do you remember when she used to spit...". Good luck!
IGNORE IT?!?!?!? It is not okay for a child to spit on ANYONE, much less their parents. It's disgusting, disrespectful and ohhhhhhhhh... it gives me the chills. I didn't have that problem with my child. He did spit once and I am with Leah W. I popped his mouth lightly and that was the end of that...
I guess I was unusually blessed...
Hello,
It may be a sensory issue for him! My lil guy went through that and I had given him some zinc and it went away almost overnight. Zinc is for among other things for oral issues. He used to do as I called it back then "spit-sculpting". It was pretty disgusting. I hope this helps you.
J.
Hi A.,
I have a 6 year old daughter who went through the spitting phase as well. Now my 21 month old son is starting. I believe my son learned it from brushing teeth and spitting in the sink. I found that giving them a "yes" place to spit helped. We have the rule: You can spit in the sink and outside. Then if they feel the need to spit, I guide them to a sink or put them outside (but not in the winter). Good luck!
Hi A., i've dealt with this same issue. My daughter is 3 1/2 and was doing the same thing, thought it was funny. She is our 2nd child who i say has the "the 2nd child syndrome". She is a handful, to put it mildly. Anyhow i don't know what your discipline ideas are, some may find this harsh at this age. I resorted to using liquid hand soap. Just a dab on my finger, the size of a pencil eraser, put it right in her mouth. Shes gotten the message, no more spitting. I've even lightly spanked her mouth. They understand more than we give them credit for. Good luck.
I wash my 4 year old's mouth out with soap. He only tested me 1 time after that.
If we don't have soap I would flick him on the tongue
ML
A.,
When I was a little girl, my younger sister used to bite me all of the time, sometimes until I bled. My mother finally got her to stop by biting her all over her body.
C.
OK,
Now I know this may seem strange but I can pretty much garantee it will work. "Wash" his mouth out with soap. This can work for spitting, mean/bad words, etc. because he has a "yucky" mouth. Just rub a wet wash cloth over a tiny bit of soap and wipe out his mouth. It's harmless but tastes horrible. A great alternative to the constant time-outs and going to his room. Good luck!
Our son who is turning 4 in Feb was also spitting when he was around 3. We just kept telling him spitting was not acceptable and that people do not like it and after a while he was able to control himself and now he doesn't do it at all. We also told him to go and punch a pillow if he was feeling frustrated instead of spitting. It just took constant reminding not to do it and that we would not stand for it. I think with any problem being consistent and letting them know what is expected is all that works! Good luck and hopefully it will stop soon!
hmm... wonder where he learned to spit? LOL..might look at the five year old for this one!
I would bet that he's just discovered this part of his body that's a lot of fun, and does some interesting things.
THIS is actually a situation where the time out thing works well. A sharp NO! and sitting in the corner should work.
What about putting him in his room? I know my 2 1/2 year old would cut that pretty quickly if he knew that he was going to be banished from the family room. Good luck! -N.
