Babies crying on planes, babies throwing food on the floor in restaurants - annoying if it's other people's and it lasts even longer and more regularly if its your own family. What are the solutions.
We tried carrying a dummy. Which the baby threw on the floor. We attached it to her jacket.
Then mother wanted to wean baby off the dummy. But Dad said you could not allow a baby to cry in a restaurant. It wasn't fair on other diners. It was too stressful for the parents and grandparents. Crying babies upset the wait staff. The restaurant owner was in a dilemma - risk upsetting the five with the baby, or risk upsetting the two nearby couples. Worse still for the people at adjoining tables who had paid good money for a night out - sometimes to get away from their own children after paying for a a babysitter in order to get a few hours of peace.
Suggestions For Solutions
1 Dummy
Keep a spare just in case. Pin on a dummy - somewhere inconspicuous so it is only used when really necessary to quiet a fractious baby.
2 Check causes of crying.
Go through the checklist. Is baby wet, bored, tired, hungry, thirsty?
Plan for all events, especially the common and predictable:
Baby Changing
Carry a nappy bag. Use a bag which unfolds to make a changing mat, or pack inside or carry separately a changing mat.
Alternatively, pick a restaurant with a changing table. Suss out every restaurant in your local high street - which Americans call main street. When you find one, get the menu, and persuade the family that this is your favourite menu or favourite, fun restaurant, try it out at cheaper lunch time, or simply tell your family the truth, the restaurant has a handy baby changing area.
Bored? You could be bored if you were ignored. After baby has looked around, baby will look at you. You could allot a rota of people to talk to and entertain your baby.
If baby is bored, take baby for a walk around the interior of the restaurant, or the upstairs room, or the outside.
3 Have an escape plan.
Where can you take the crying baby? To the car parked outside? The Ladies toilet? The restaurant's upstairs room? The restaurant's downstairs room? The alley to the back car park? The garden at the back? The pub garden? The awning on a rainy day? Walking distance of home?
3 Distractions - toys/books/bubbles
Every member of the dining party should bring something to entertain baby.
And know a song.
Know a finger game.
Make shadows on the wall.
Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the gates and here are the people.
Have a baby sling so you can walk around, jiggling the baby.
Baby No Plate
Teach toddlers to put food they don't like onto a side plate. No throwing on the floor! No dropping onto the laps of the child or adult.
What is bad? Not the food. Not the baby. Throwing is bad.
That is what you tell yourself. It is a more positive and focused message to tell the child.
Bubbles
Bubbles at 50p or a dollar are cheaper than a babysitter.
Photo by Steve Ford Eliot in Wikipedia from Flickr.
Useful websites
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/19861030/parenting-coach-50p-item-instantly-calm-toddlers-tantrum/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=amazon+bubble
For tips and tricks, weird and wonderful people and places in the Americas, Europe, Asia and down under in Australia and New Zealand
travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com
Please share links to your favourite posts.
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