My step son Alex is obsessed with a few things that have almost caused him to get hurt, and want to break him of these habits. He loves washing machines and he loves fans, let me elaborate.
At my wifes parents, my parents, my brothers, ANYWHERE, he talk about fans and turns them on and off and throws a tantrum when you make him stop. In the morning he will wake up before anyone else and move furniture or chairs, anything he can climb on to reach the fan's strings so he can pull them. We have tried to explain what he has done wrong, and other things, but he keeps doing it. At my wife's parents, he climbed on their bed with a screwdriver and unsrewed the light ssembly from the fan and then was caught trying to unscrew the fan. he has broken numerous fans in many places and if there are fans where we go, he will stop and watch them and we have to drag him through the store. We just want him to slow down with the fans so he doesn't hurt himself.
He broke his fathers washing machine! He will climb on the machine open it, turn it on, and then watch the wash cycle. I try to let him go with me when I do laundry but he also does it on his own in the mornings while we sleep. I am worried about him falling in and getting hurt. He is not interested in anything else so what can i do.
My last question is about his bottle or as he calls it his deepee. He has to have it to go to sleep. we made it disappear for a week but my wife went and bought a new one because he was throwing 45 min to an hour long tantrums every night. I think he is too old for it but the benifit is he only gets it right at bedtime and when he gets it he falls asleep really quick.
WHAT SHOULD I DO??????????????????????
I agree with Sarah regarding replacing the fan habits with somethign else. If necessary fget a lock for the washing machine. Much better to pay a few dollars for a clasp and lock then to have him injured or worse! There are all kinds of spinning things out there. What about a ceiling fan in his room that he can flip on with a light switch and stay safely in his bed to watch cpin? Explain its HIS SPECIAL ONE FOR HIM Allow him to pick it out with you or even help install it by handing you pieces or something if hes old enough.
How old is he?? maybe you need to have a simple door chime / alarm installed on his bedroom door that would awaken you when he awoke in the morning and left his room. Allow him a plastic windmill he can blow and play with or other spinny toys. Perhaps if he has a designated one for him himself his obsession with the others MIGHT stop.
I also agree with the bottle. They say NEVER to put a baby to bed with a bottle because it will sit and rot their teeth. My son also had a fit when we tried to take the bottle away, and he had refused a pacifier,... so what we did was we started to water down whatever was usually in his bottle and keep watering it down more and more and more every few nights until eventually he either doesnt want it or he has a bottle of water to sleep with. My son would walk around with the bottle hanging from his mouth chewing on it all day long it was his security.
hope it helps
Zach and Amanda,
I agree with these ladies on the spinning of objects. There are so many things out there that you could try so as to redirect his interest. They even have those little portable battery operated fans that are not high powered and the blades are a soft material so if he stops it from moving with his hands it is safe. You could actually use something like that as a reward when he is being good. Yeah I would worry too about him taking apart the ceiling fans because they could pose a big danger if they fell on top of him. Also the washing machine. My son liked the washing machine too and the accordian type doors that are entering the laundry space we put up one of those simple hook latch locks that only cost less than a dollar. If there is a door at all in front of where you keep the washer and dryer then I would suggest one of these. We put ours in the center of where our 2 doors come together and it works great. We have those on a lot of our doors to tell you the truth..LOL
About the bottle. Adam was 3 before we took it away. He is 3 and a half now. It was hard because he wouldn't take any kind of pacifier. He had to have a certain kind of nipple on his bottle too and that was aggravating because he was so big that he was destroying every nipple. I was in the doctors office one day and seen a NT child a year younger than him going to the water machine and getting a drink out of a cup. Adam at that time was able to drink out of a cup during meals so I knew that he was able. He looked so odd to me compared to this other child becasue adam towered over him. Because I KNEW he could drink out of a cup but yet he still hung on to this bottle everywhere he went...I personally decided that as soon as we got home I would throw away his bottle. And I did. It was one of the hardest things to deal with especially around bed time. Same as your son he screamed for up to 2 hours sometimes. The only thing that kept me sane and kept me from giving in was KNOWING that my son had the ability to drink out of a cup and how he looked in that waiting room compared to that other child. Now I'm not advocating taking away your sons bottle if he is not physically able to drink out of a cup. Some of these kids have oral motor and other motor delays that keep them from using the cup for a while. My son didn't and that's why I took it away. If there are no delays keeping your child from drinking out of a cup and you decide to take away the bottle.....I'm sorry there is no easy way out. You just have to take it a day at time and eventually they go to sleep without it. It might be a later bed time and it is frustrating but eventually they will stop screaming. Hope this helps, you guys take care,
Karrie
My ds kept his bottle until a bit over 2.5 yo but he only got water in it. It was his security blanket.
As for him getting out of his room have you tried using baby gates to keep him from moving about the house while your asleep? With my oldest we had to put up 2 gates (one on top of the other) becuase he could climb over just the bottom one. We had to stop that when he learned to take the bottom one down and crawl under it, but at that point he wasn't roaming the house randomly and we just moved the gate to keep him in the bedroom area (as what he wanted was access to us). We still keep a gate up at night (he now shares a room with his 2.5 yo brother) and he just climbs over it to get out of his room and such, but we no longer have the problems of him getting into things he's not supposed to be.
He's obsessed with the spinning.... You need to redirect him to OTHER spinning objects... How old is he??? Is he verbal??? If so... make the fans and the washing machine a NO GO, BUT replace them with some other spinning objects that are safer for him to play with and obsess on. Explain that they are dangerous but these things are safer. Falling asleep with a bottle is a REALLY bad habit... it's HORRIBLE for thier teeth.... will He take a pacifier instead??? Not much better... but a tad.. my son Zach DX with severe autism is 3 at the end of this month and still uses a pacifier, but we got rid of the bottle at a year old. I would suggest sticking to your guns on the bottle thing, but that is just me.... I know that the long tantrums are not fun.... but these kids need us to be consistant with EVERYTHING we do... including breaking them of habits that could be dangerous or unhealthy. If you are consistant and repeat repeat repeat with these kids.... they will learn. *shrugs* sorry i can't be of more help.At one point Gabe used to try to sneak out at night so I got motion detector alarms. And no, I didn't pay that much for them. I got them online for .00. And surprisingly they worked. Nevermind when they went off they could had woken up anyone, they were extremely loud. But it did break him of trying to sneak out at night. Good luck.
Tammy