Posted on December 16, 2007 in latest news
‘Ever since her sister was born, my three-year-old has started acting like a baby herself. She talks in baby jargon, wants to be picked up all the time, and even has toileting accidents.’
Even fully grown adults can’t help sometimes envying a newborn her undemanding existence. It is not surprising that a youngster, barely out of the pram herself and just beginning to master some of the many esponsibilities that come with growing up, would yearn for a return to babyhood when confronted with an infant sibling. Especially when she sees that acting like a baby works very well or her new sister, who is allowed to lie in the lap of luxurious leisure, who is carried everywhere, catered to endlessly, opens her mouth to whimper and receives precisely what she wants, when she wants it.
What to do
- Rather than pressuring your older daughter to “be a big girl” at this sensitive time, baby her when she wants to be babied- even if it means caring for two babies at once.
- Give her the attention she is craving, wants to take her milk from bottle or if her toilet habits take a sudden turn for the infantile.
- At the same time, encourage her to act her age by making a big deal about big-girl behaviour, for instance, when she clean up after herself, helps you out with the baby, or goes on the potty. Offering such praise in front of others will reinforce its benefits.
- Remind her that she was your first baby and now she is your first big-girl.
- Take every opportunity to point out the special things that she can do that her sister can’t, such as enjoying ice-cream at a birthday party, zooming down the slide at playground, or having pizza out with mummy and daddy. Bake with her while baby is napping, enlist her help when food shopping, take her to see a movie while the baby stays with a sitter.
In her own time, she will figure out for herself the perks of being the older child and will decide to leave her baby past behind.
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