Hi Moms,
Baby #2 arrives in August and I am starting to think about getting the house ready. One thing that I am worried about is all of the small, choking hazard type toys my 3.5 year old daughter has/plays with. She's a really good girl, and I am a super nervous mom so I don't plan on not supervising her and the new baby, but I'm just not sure how to deal with/store toys with little parts (dollhouse. barbie dolls shoes, etc--the list of small things is never ending). Did you put everything up high and make them ask for it or do a lot of teaching about small things don't get left out because the baby might put them in his mouth? Not sure how nuts to make myself, or how cautious to be. Thanks!
A.
We have a split level house with a family room on the lower level that we use for a playroom/office. All of our older kids' toys with little pieces are kept down there. The living room has a big toy box for all of the baby's toys. If you don't have this kind of set-up, have your daughter keep the choking hazard toys in her bedroom and tell her she can only play with them there. It's hard at first, but they get used to it.
I have done several things. Most of the toys that are small are kept in my daughters bedroom. The babies aren't ever in her room so it doesn't matter if they are on the floor or not. Any small toys that are brought downstairs must be played with at the table where the babies can't reach. I also teach the children about why it is important not to leave them laying on the floor including reasons that mean something to them like so that the baby doesn't chcew on and ruin them.
My daughter (turns 4 in July) has a tin that she keeps all her barbie shoes, crowns, necklaces, etc. in when they are not in use and the barbies are kept in a basket that can be put up (makes it nice when she is bad and we take them away). Our son is 2.5 and doesn't try to eat the stuff but we are due with a baby this month. Both of our kids know that those little things are "CHOKING HAZARDS" and that they have to be "put away" or they will be "taken away." Just work with your daughter and teach her -- she is at the perfect age to be a big helper! :)
LOL...You're not nuts. :-D I have a 21 mos old and a six year old. I was in the same boat as you. Still am. I have put all the small toys in my cedar chest. The moon sand that my six year old likes to play with, he can play with it, but only in the kitchen and we keep the child gate shut while he plays with it. We have a shoe box of the small lego that my son can play with, but again, only in the kitchen with the gate shut. Then he has to immediately clean up after he gets done and my husband and I help him to make sure everything is picked up. We also keep their bedroom door shut during the day because we have bunk beds for the boys and it has stairs instead of a ladder. My 21 mos old loves to try and climb the stairs. He actually ended up on the top bunk! Daggum they move fast! Got him down and that's when we decided to close the door. We have a three bedroom house, but decided to put the boys in one room and make the third room a play room for them. That's where all the safe toys are at. My six year old is pretty content with playing with his brother with those toys. Every now and then he wants to play with his big boy toys, and that's when we have him at the kitchen table playing with them.
The little parts to the doll house and the barbie accessories, definitely put in a shoe box on top of the shelf in the closet. Then when your little girl wants to play with the small parts, have her in a separate room where you can still watch her and have a gate up, so she can play with ease without baby crawling over to snag those small toys. :-D I hope this helps. Congrats to baby #2! :-D How exciting!!
Well the good thing is that it will be a few months before baby #2 is even reaching for anything. But you do bring up a great point - my son was 2 1/2 when my daughter was born, and by the time he was 3, there were lots of little parts to things around. Basically we took the strategy of teaching our son what sizes were too small for the baby to have, and he's always been careful about leaving his toys around since then. Things that are in a set - in our case the thomas the train island with parts - in your case the barbies with the little shoes, etc. we put in one of 2 places.
1) our dining room table has become Sodor Island when we're not eating (that way all of his trains, etc. can be on there for him to play with but too high for her to reach)
2) we made a "comfy cozy corner" in our son's room. We blocked it off with his chair and toy baskets and it's just his area, no one else is allowed to go in there. He can go in there when he needs quiet time away from his sister, or if he wants to play with something without her getting in the middle of it and destroying everything or trying to eat the parts. that's been one of the best things we did to make him feel like he has a sanctuary where he doesn't have to share and doesn't have to "be careful" about his sister.
Hi A.,
Someone asked just this question yesterday, in regard to her son and new daughter. I'll post the link, and paste in my answer from that:
http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/1243269263196815361
Kids like to play where the action is.
In your case, here are two suggestions that give you control and some safety over the situation.
First, when your bigger one wants to play with "little pieces" but be close to you, set up a portacrib/pack-n-play in the livingroom. That is HIS space to play, and the little pieces must stay in the portacrib. This way, the pieces are contained (he can come back to them) and might not fall on the floor, much as they could at the table. (Which is another option, working "up".)
Also, consider investing in a good gate for your son's room. This way, when your daughter is mobile, you can gate the room off. He can play in there but still feel more connected because the door won't be closed. This will also keep out little sister. I like the gates which have hinges and lock into place instead of the pressure/tension gates which can fall over.
*added: having a separate play area before baby is mobile also helps, because older kids can get pretty elaborate in their imaginative play, setting up 'stories', so having a gate they can play behind, or a table up higher, lets their work remain undisturbed, which is one sort of sibling tension when baby becomes more of a person and mobile.
As time goes on, you'll discover that you invent other ways to keep your older child's play protected and separate. I would also be clear that if little pieces are left out, that they go away for a week or so. You can make the clean-up fun, though, and be :"hunters" for whatever you need to pick up. Make a game out of it.
(When I was 8 and my brother very new, we had a rule when sewing that she would count out all of our pins... if any one was missing when we cleaned up, we'd have to search until we found it, so our little brother wouldn't choke. Just an idea for seriously dangerous things for baby: counting out how many and then making sure all of them are cleaned up.)
