Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

Ella has been pushing boundaries lately. She'll do something, I'll say NO, she'll stop for a second, and then do it again while sheepishly looking at me and/or laughing. Isn't it a little early for this? She's 13 months!

I'm pretty sure she understands when she's not supposed to do something, but how do I discipline her when she doesn't listen?

I've tried saying "no" in a stern voice and explaining why she can't do whatever (play with the fireplace, step on the cat, etc)

then if she continues, I've tried
-removing her from the situation and trying to distract her
-making her sit on my lap for a minute because she didn't listen
-putting her in her crib for a nap

Is anything effective at this age? and can she understand the consequences of her behavior?

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

She is looking for a reaction from you, so try not to react. When Noah is naughty, sometimes I just turn my head away from him and don't look at him. This does work (sometimes) and he is CRAVING the attention, he even tries to pull my face around to look at him.

Thats a good start, but keep it up with the NO and the explaining!

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

OMG!! I thought it was just Ali

We say no and she laughs - hysterically.
I have been removing her from the situation - but it isn't working completely , so I guess I need advice too

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

Dd understands no. But, slowly, she stopped listening to it. It started off with "no" and she'll pout and sometimes cry depending on how mean wely we say it. Then slowly, she stopped the pouting.. then it was all out tuning us out. She is not looking for attention. She knows she's not supposed to climb on something, yet she does it anyway, whether or not we'r ein the room. She's not supposed to play with her milk, yet she doe sit anyway.. even after we've told her no a split second ago. We've tried removing her from the situation, but the second she's back, she goes right at it again! Now, if she does something repeatedly.. we slap her hand, she'll cry of course. But then do it again! I don't know how to discipline her anymore!

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

I would tell her no, slap her hand and tell her that she upset me and ignore her. There is nothing worse that you can do to a toddler than ignore them!

We went through this when Jules turned two, but it passed quickly and she learned "her boundaries" ratehr quickly.

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

DD is 14 mos and has been doing this now. Banging on the TV and laughing at me as I tell her No. It is frustrating. But I guess you jsut have to keep reinforcing it until one day they hopefully get it.

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

When DS is doing something he is not supposed to be doing we very sternly yell "No" He'll stop immediately and sometimes he'll do it again and sometimes he'll stop and move on. He is 14 months but we started saying no to him earlier. My mom thinks it's silly to say no to him now because he is so little. But you have to say it to them early. When are you supposed to start disciplining them at age 3 or 4, no...My mom is too old school.

DS will look at us when he is about to repeat what he was doing when we yelled no to him. When we were on the cruise, he was out on the balcony with my MIL one day. So he hit her in the face (not to intentionally hurt her, he was doing it in a playful way) but anyways, DH sternly said "no! do nice"...So then 5 minutes later my MIL said that he was about to hit her in the face again when he stopped and looked to see if DH was around...Little Stinker! LOL He ended up not hitting her in the face...LOL It's as if he thought twice about it...

Message edited 8/1/2007 1:37:11 PM.

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

Thanks for all the advice, and for letting me know I'm not alone

Unfortunately, I can't ignore her behavior because its typically things that are dangerous to her (standing on her chair, eating things she shouldn't, etc).

Its really only been the last 2 days that she's been difficult, so I hope to nip in in the bud now before she gets out of control.

Re: Discipline for a one year old - is it possible?

I think it's not possible for them to behave perfectly at that age but they can start to understand that there are consequences. My DD was the same way, she would test us all the time, and ignored the "nos." Removing her from the situation and distracting helped if it was something dangerous. If she's doing something like hitting, saying no, and if they still hit then either put them down if you're holding them, or leave the room(if it's safe to do so of course). That worked well for my DD, she HATED when we left the room.

Now that she's almost 2 we have also started time out- if she's bad she gets one warning usually then time out. She sits in the corner and we set the timer- she used to get up so it took a lot of patience to get to the point now where she will sit there for 1 min until it goes off, then we give her a hug and kiss and remind her no hitting, or no throwing, or whatever she did wrong. Now many times if I just warn her she'll stop. Of course other times she wants to test me and will do it anyway, but she's a toddler what do you expect?!