How do you redirect a grabby six month old?

[April Dawn]

Hello mamas!

My six month old is kind of driving me up the wall lately. He's gotten into this really grabby stage - he wants to pull, twist and chew EVERYTHING. Sometimes I am holding him when he decides he wants my book, the phone, etc. - basically he wants things that are not baby toys and that I don't want him to chew on. If I don't give him something he's reaching for, he gets mad! He will start screaming and thrashing. He seems to have a major temper. He ignores baby toys I try to offer instead. How do I distract him from the phone/magazine/whatever that he wants and can't have? Thanks!

[JMJ]

I'm not sure you can do anything besides cope. I talk on the phone with the phone cord going behind my back, read only when I'm nursing her to sleep with the book behind her, eat without her next to me, not on me, wear her facing me, and I've moved most of my books to higher bookshelves around the house. I've put toys for her on the bookshelves that she was emptying, so she can discover them for herself. The ones she finds herself are far more interesting than the ones that I give her. DD is almost 8 months old, and I don't see any end in sight.

[mi_amor]

I took the batteries out of one of our cordless phones so the baby could play with that one, and gave DS old remotes and an old cell phone to play with too. He prefers our everyday items to his toys!

DS is 13 1/2 months now, and is still very grabby and gets angry if he can't have something. So I like to give him something very similar to play with and he's usually very happy.

[lifeguard]

At that point until just recently really I had to just keep things I didn't want ds to have out of his reach. He wasn't happy with replacements & he didn't understand no's. It's frustrating.

[April Dawn]

Well, sounds like it's not just my baby - sounds like he's doing exactly what he should be doing at this age! I will try giving him old phones/remotes if we have one that I'm confident is safe - I'll check. And he's not crawling yet, but I love the idea of putting toys on lower shelves for him to "discover" once he is! Thanks!