Shaking head NO - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

2fst · 03-24-2006, 06:06 AM

For the past month DS has been shaking his head NO and I would love to figure out a way to get him to stop doing it. I hate to say this but he looks like he is retarded when he does it, like he doesn't have it all together. He does it when he wants to say no and in time to music. But it is becoming hard to deal with when every time we try to feed him he shakes his head no. You can't get a spoon in his mouth or a bottle, most times he just goes hungry because he was too stubborn to stop and cooperate. He also does it when we go to wash him up after a meal. Every time he hears music, he does in time to that. Every time we tell him No No he does it. We have tried shaking our heads yes and saying yes every time he does it. But every one that sees him do it thinks it is so cute and does it back to him, every one from my mom and sisters to complete strangers. The other day he was holding himself up and doing it to music and he was getting dizzy and could barely keep himself on his 2 feet.

Kiera1595 · 03-24-2006, 06:36 AM

DD has been doing that for months. She seems to get a kick out of the way it feels. Then of course once we acknowledge it she keeps doing it. But she is starting to outgrow it and is now nodding yes (even though she doesn't quite understand what it means)

Try giving your son more foods that he can feed himself so that you don't have to rely on spoon food as much. He'll probably enjoy feeding times more when he has all the control.

Silly babies

dizzygirl · 03-24-2006, 06:59 AM

2fast- I am cracking up reading your post. I wish I had some advice, but babies are so weird! Jack grunts and rocks back and forth sometimes( to music), and he looks like you mentioned " doesn't have it all together" too. lol

sweetea13 · 03-24-2006, 10:28 AM

I'm cracking up too, I know it is not funny to you though! I really don't know what to do since my son is too young to be doing this but I would say just really try not to respond to it, maybe if he gets no reaction when he does it he will stop? Not sure but worth a try to just pretend you don't even notice.

Kiedy · 03-24-2006, 10:30 AM

My son does the same thing, he's been doing it for over a month now too. Ocasionally when he does it during feeding, I just hold his head in the corner so I can get some food in.

I think it's normal for them to do certain things over and over again. When you think about it, they are gaining control over their muscles and become excited when they can consistantly do something. Upto that point all their movements have been so random with zero control. So don't worry or be ashamed of it, as you can see a lot of our kids are doing it, and we can't all have "retarded" kids.
Soon he'll be doing other movements.