 | My son, 3 in March, has disliked his baby brother (8 months) since day one. When the baby was first born he ignored him and tried to prevent me from holding him. Now that the younger one is into everything and (naturally) only wants to be around his big brother, my older one will purposely hit him. He has tried to sit full force on his head, hit him on the head with his hand & toys & other objects, bit him, pinched him, and constantly pushes the baby over. The occurrences are random and difficult to predict since they just happen out of the blue. I am afraid that one of these days the baby will be injured as a result of this. I try to watch them closely but it is nearly impossible to prevent the abuse.
I have already tried timeouts, spanking, heart to heart talks, yelling (not a good thing I know but I can't help it sometimes), tried to ask him what we can do to make him feel better, etc..Will it ever get better?
My older son has always been a high demand child and he turned into a charming boy around age two. There was that honeymoon stage where everything was great. Then the baby was born, my husband was laid off, and then we moved far away from everyone due to a new job. It is just myself and the two boys during the day. I feel for him and realize how hard it must be to deal with all the new things. We have been in our new place for around two months and it took over a month for him to stop asking to go home.
What can I do differently or in addition to in order to make the older son feel better and also to protect the baby (who only wants to be loved by the older brother)? |
