The first steps of the baby are very important, especially when he begins to walk. But it is also a burden for many parents. To do? We offer you tips that will help you at home.
Our baby is getting older. He begins to abandon the crib and car that was so comfortable for us to control him and decides to start walking and travel the world without limits. Until recently it was enough to place the crib away from dangerous elements and attend to the stroller while we played with it, but… it turns out that now my environment is a potential danger!
Corners, stairs, fires, knives, big brothers, carpets, etc. Suddenly we realize that everything we see can turn into an accident. So we started putting corner pieces, barriers and blocks throughout the house adding not to lose our son even a half second of sight.
This is a new situation and it is normal that at first it becomes a small obsession, but can we protect it from everything? What if we take it to friends’ houses? And in the park?
Helpful tips to help you at home when your baby begins to take his first steps
The need to teach danger
In the real world, which is where we are raising our children and we must not forget, there are dangers that escape us and are impossible to predict. In this way, just as we teach our children to eat alone or go to the bathroom independently, we must teach them what danger is.
At the beginning of his experimentation with the environment the child has no stops, everything can be touched, sucked or thrown. Our duty is to teach you that NOT EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE. We must make him understand that there are things that can hurt him and that they are not appropriate. In this way, with effort and dedication, you will not be the one who compulsively takes your child away from potential dangers, but it will be he who avoids them safely.
Adapting the house
Teaching danger does not mean not preventing accidents. For example, if there is a staircase at home, in the first moments that the child still does not have the adequate psychomotor development to face them, we must place a barrier.
But despite the fact that the barrier is up, we must explain to the child through signs and words why the fence. By the time the child is able to go up and down stairs that fence will be useless and we must teach him how to go down safely or explain that without an adult he should not go down. We must hold you accountable for your actions.
We can translate this example into objects such as vases or even drawers. What we should not do is that at the beginning of your exploration suddenly and magically all the objects that were at home are no longer within your reach and that everything around you is prohibited or has security closures.
In other words, we cannot turn our living room into a giant crib. We must show him the objects that exist and on the basis of patience and repetition explain those that are adequate and those that are not.
My son goes straight to the dangers, what do I do?
Children are not aware of danger as we said before, and if you look a little more, probably the frequency of approaching dangers is less than the anxiety that this causes us.
It is important to be insistent, repeat without getting angry and reason at their level. It is normal that in the first months of experimentation the words ESO DO NOT take over our mouths that is why it is necessary to look for an alternative exploration.
Exploring is not dangerous
Let’s remember that the child is exploring and let’s put ourselves in his place for a moment. Everything he is addressing is a NO, everything he wants to see up close is a NO and everything he wants to touch is an even bigger NO. Thus it is impossible to investigate and learn. Our duty is to give you an alternative.
For example, at home we have a chest of drawers with four drawers. We do not want the child to open 3 of them, so we teach him that those 3 drawers should not be opened, but that the fourth drawer CAN be opened and also there he can store his things.
First of all, we show you what is in the 3 drawers that you should not access because they belong to Mom and Dad (secrets are curious and what is forbidden is more attractive). In this way he will already know what there is and when he realizes that they are not interesting and adding the explained and repeated rule he will finally end up not opening them.
But not opening those 3 drawers will not imply the frustration of not knowing what a drawer is, how it is opened or what it is for and your exploration needs will be satisfied.
Thus, if we teach what danger is instead of prohibiting what we consider dangerous, when the child visits other places with other rules, he will accept them and avoid what he has been taught as dangerous (accessing the kitchen, playing with the plugs, opening drawers without permission, etc.), which will give us more peace of mind and reduce the chances of accidents happening.