Jealous 22 month old help?

Question

My son is jealous of there being a new baby in the house. At first he just ignored the baby but he’s gotten aggressive going as far as taking her pacifier/bottle, pinching, and an attempt at biting her. My husband had to go back to work after spending two weeks at home and now I get no peace having to keep an eye out for him. Any tips?

Answer

Set aside time for just you and him, forget him involved in caring for baby.  My daughter was almost 23 months when my son was born.  The first month she had some behaviors like that.  She would forcefully give him a paci (while he was sleeping) or start out touching softly and then get rough. She's been doing much better the last couple of weeks, my son is 7 weeks.  We did have to do some time outs when she was too rough with her brother as well.  It's a big change.  For us it seems to help that she gets my undivided attention right before nap (I feed the baby and then we cuddle before she naps) and before bed.  She knows that no matter what she has mommy time to herself those two times.  My husband does bedtime routine and a bedtime read aloud with just the two of them, which she also knows she can count on.

Answer

It’s a big change I wouldn’t say it’s jealousy. You’ve been just his mama for for a period of time and now all of a sudden their is a new little person that he now has to share your time with and that’s a lot of time seeing it’s a newborn. My son turned 3 two days after I delivered his baby brother at first he wasn’t really paying any attention to him then it was like oh wait he’s ours and he’s staying so that’s when he started acting out in general never really towards the baby. What helped was including him on daily tasks where he could do things like diaper changes or getting ready for a feeding or an outing. Also once my husband got home I’d give them baby and I’d spend just time with him it was summer so we’d do an evening walk or if it wasn’t too late we’d go to a park for an hour just little things so that he had all my attention on him and he got his quality time with me. My husband does it too we switch so the next day I stay with the baby and he has daddy time. It has helped a lot to curve this issues we were having. Now the baby is 8 months old and slowly becoming mobile so he likes to play with his brother.

Answer

Maybe it might help if you engage him in helping to care for the new baby. Ask him to get her a clean diaper when you're changing her, or to pick out an outfit for her to wear for the day and give him enthusiastic praise when he does. It might start getting him to think more positively about her.

Jealous 22 month old help?

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