Today, Adeia requested that I let her write a post about her experiences as a baby. As she put it, “There are volumes of books on parenting…what the infant community needs is some tips on being a baby.”
The past 11 months or so have been a roller coaster – lots of highs, a few lows – and in talking with a few of my friends, it seems that this is the common experience. I found myself asking, quite often, “What should I expect,” or “What’s the right approach?” Perhaps you’ve felt the same way. Now that I have the first year under my belt, I’d like to offer some tips to some of you newbies out there. Feel free to disregard them – “there’s more than one way to throw a fit,” if you know what I mean. These are just some of the more common problems I’ve run into, and my most successful approaches to them.
Tip #1 (What to do with a Fussy Parent):
Let’s face it. Even the best parent gets a little fussy sometimes. And it’s hard to tell what they want – communication isn’t their forte. My first approach was to ask Mom or Dad to verbalize what they needed. This attempt failed miserably. My theory is that parent’s have basic needs, which, if they are not met, result in fussiness. The problem is, sometimes parents don’t even know why they’re fussing – so it’s up to us to find out. So I began to approach them in “problem solving mode.” This was very effective – I even have a basic list I run through now. This list isn’t comprehensive – I just picked a few things here or there to give you a general idea.
1. Hunger: Most probable issue. Try offering the parent a graham cracker or two off your tray. They seem to think this is funny, so it’s also helpful if they’re just bored or cranky. A word of caution though: be sure to only give them a taste of the cracker, and then take it back. You don’t want them to get into the bad habit of eating off your tray.
2. Stress (emergency only): This tactic is primarily effective with moms. If you’ve tried all your regular tricks and you mom still seems stressed, try and get her to take a bath/shower. This is tricky – you can’t just suggest it to them. I had to do this the other day, and I used a combo poop/messy eating method. It wasn’t enough to just get it all over myself, so I kicked a little on the changing table and then smeared some banana on her face. End result? Double Bath! (The initial irritation might stress mom out further, so be prepared. But after that, they often seem more relaxed. )
3. Alone time: Parent’s are very social creatures, but sometimes they just need a break. If you think you parent might be fussy because of over-stimulation, try letting them be for a bit. Go tear up a magazine, or unroll some toilet paper – any sort of solitary activity will do. I often use that time to catch up on the laundry – it seems I never have enough time in the day to pull it out of the basket and onto the floor.
4. Distraction – the “look over here” method: I can never say enough about distraction. Throw something, smile winningly, take your first step, crow loudly, say something witty – it all works wonderfully with a fussy parent.
That’s all for this installment, kids. I’ll try to be back soon with another installment and a few more tips, if I can steal some time with the computer. Right now I’ve got to go – it looks like Mom needs a nap.
Man, I made a smart kid.
Yeah I was just going to say, way to go guys, looks like Addy’s literary skills could be paying for a much nicer retirement home for you both! Congrats on having such a smart one year old.
(hysterical post, props to the author.)
Addie, you’re one smart cookie.
Personally, I think Addie hired a ghost writer for this blog entry. More typos would have made me less suspicious, but I suppose someone who considers himself a journalist is automatically suspicious, I suspect.