Having a new baby in the home can be a very big disruption to the family. There is often quite a bit of kicking, screaming, crying and whining. Sometimes, even the new baby makes some noise, as well!

There are any number of things that can cause your toddler to start acting out since the new baby came home. The most common cause of toddlers having problems when there is a new baby in the house is just good old fashioned jealousy. The toddler may be jealous of the time that the new baby spends with mommy. They may be jealous that the new baby gets attention just by screaming. They may be jealous at the amount of affection that is often lavished on a new baby, not only by the parents, but by everyone else that comes into the home to see the new baby. All of these things can lead to severe jealousy on the part of the toddler, even though she probably can’t explain her feelings in those terms. To avoid this, you should make sure that you are spending plenty of special, one-on-one time with your toddler. While you can’t probably devote as much energy and time to your toddler as you may have been able to before the new baby came home, even spending a little bit of quality time can often reduce this feeling of jealousy and can help your toddler to act out less often.

Sometimes, your toddler acting out after the new baby comes home is more of a learned behavioral concept. Your toddler may have watched his little brother scream, and then almost immediately get dinner. Your toddler might, on an unconscious level, gather from this that all he has to do if he wants a snack is to scream or fuss in the same way that the baby does. While it is important to hear your toddler’s wants and needs, you need to be careful not to reward this sort of behavior, and to explain to your toddler that the only reason that the new baby gets what it wants by yelling is because it doesn’t know how to talk yet. Your toddler is a “big boy” who knows how to use words, which means that he should be using words instead of yelling to get what he wants and what he needs.

Posted in Parenting

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