Help me brainstorm things to keep 14mo DS quiet during church!

[LDSmomma]

DS is 14 months, and is quite boisterous, compared to his friends. Help me think of some great ideas to keep him happy and quiet at church. I aim to get maybe a 10-15 minute stretch of him quiet, then we leave the chapel and walk around the halls, and he can get more energy out.

Here's what we're doing now:

new, different snacks he doesn't eat the rest of the week, so he's interested (Welcome suggestions for that... currently, we use dried fruit)

We give him juice only at church. He drinks water at home

stacking blocks

cars

books

In our church, babies (children) stay with parents until 18 months, at which point they can go to nursery for part of church, so we have just four months left, but even after 18 mos, he will still be with us (as are all babies) during part of church.

[ElsieLC]

Quiet toys:
Magna-doodle
Electronic photo album (the kind that fits on your keychain)
mirror?
Altoids tin to open and close

[hakeber]

Just a thought, but if you are giving him juice and fruit (when he is not used to sweet drinks and snacks) at church when you want him to be quiet...I mean wouldn't that make him more hyper and more prone to energry bursts?

Maybe a nice sleepy time tea before or during church and sleepy snacks, like turkey cubes or cheese..high in protein low in sugar. I would also let him run like crazy BEFORE church (is there a playground you can take him to for an hour befor church starts?)

I can't think of anything that at the age of 14 months would have kept my ds quiet in church for more than 2 minutes apart from nursing maybe...that's it. Can you nurse him? or at least give him a sippy cup of warm milk? I would think blocks and cars would be loud (they would be in my kid's hands) and any toy can be loud when in the hands of toddler...maybe a video player with headphones plugged in and a favorite movie playing, but I am guessing that would defeat the purpose of having him there.

[claddaghmom]

We go to church during DD's nap hour. DH holds her while she sleeps.

I think in the long run, food/drink backfires, but I'm not above sneaking some cheerios from my pocket right before she tries shrieking. But that was before we discovered the glorious opportunity of nap hour.

[asoulunbound]

Currently I nurse DD and then let her stand and play with a stuffed doll on the pew or sleep in my arms. I try and run her around before the service too. We go to a small kid friendly church- they are ok if she does laps (I'm not).
I've also spent a service or two at an unfamiliar church in the "cry room" even when she was happy because the new place was so interesting she wanted to explore. everything. sigh we've missed several weeks now, and since dh does not attend, I've been considering leaving her home for an easy way to cheat the toddler 'tude.

[LemonPie]

I'm LDS too so I know where you're coming from.

Honestly, I find that going out during Sacrament Meeting and letting them play/wander in the halls works against me. I bring quiet toys/books/crayons and non-messy snacks. They can get down and walk around within our pew as long as they're quiet. If we have to take them out because they're too noisy, they stay in-arms and they don't get to get down and play. My older two figured out pretty quickly that it was more fun to be in SM than out. Still working on it with my 17 mo. She's recently found her screech, so we've been in and out a lot.

[starling&diesel]

My DD will be old enough for the childcare soon too ... but in the meantime, we spend a large portion of the service (especially the SILENT meditation and the homily) in the narthex, where the service can be heard over the loudspeaker. That works well! She can run around and climb the stairs.
Families with small children sit at the back, so it's no big deal if we're in and out. I give her my wallet to deconstruct, and that keeps her busy for a good ten minutes. We bring books too.
DD is 13 months, and I could take her to the childminding, but I'm not comfortable enough to leave her with them just yet.
We go to the UU church, if that makes any difference.

[Farmer'sWife]

Originally Posted by LemonPie

Honestly, I find that going out during Sacrament Meeting and letting them play/wander in the halls works against me. I bring quiet toys/books/crayons and non-messy snacks. They can get down and walk around within our pew as long as they're quiet. If we have to take them out because they're too noisy, they stay in-arms and they don't get to get down and play. My older two figured out pretty quickly that it was more fun to be in SM than out. Still working on it with my 17 mo. She's recently found her screech, so we've been in and out a lot.

Yep, I try to make going out of the service as boring as possible so as to not encourage it. My toddler knows there are toys in the "family room" and would want to spend the entire time in there if she could. There is no nursery at our church, so if we go out, I miss out. It seems to work better for us to sit near the front rather than the back. DD seems to do better when she sees what is going on up front and not feeding off of the other kids bouncing around the back. I also save the most interesting toys and a snack for the long quiet streches like the sermon.

[Everrgreen]

I think the only thing that would keep my 13 month old quiet would be to nurse him to sleep. Even if I gave him quiet toys he would still babble and screech. Same for snacks, unless I had enough to keep him eating for an entire hour! So, I second the pp who suggested timing a nap for that hour.

[Red Pajama]

I've not read the responses, so I may be repeating others.

What has worked for us with our three:

Familiar board books
nursing
snacks (not messy)
Fingerplays whispered
bouncing on knee
encouraging to sing along when appropriate

From about 18 months- not quite three are the hardest years in my opinion. They are old enough to be very loud at strategically inopportune moments, yet not socially aware enough to be embarrassed. So when all else fails, one of us takes the youngest out for distracting somewhere else.

[blessedwithboys]

we keep our children with us at all times, no baby room. we expect kiddos to make noise, and take them out to the lobby or mothers room in the ladies bathroom when they become a major distraction to the congregation, but try to get them right back ASAP. i never spanked my kiddos to "train" them to "behave". for us, magnadoodles were heaven-sent. also, with ds2 i had a booster seat that strapped to the chair (no pews) and had a tray and i would give him toys/books that wouldnt make a horrible sound when he banged them. he felt very grown up and included when he got his own place to sit and it helped get me lobger stretches of quiet time. he also had his own bible from about the 18 mo mark and he would role play looking up scriptures with everyone else.

[maotmsmi]

.

Edited by maotmsmi - 5/21/11 at 3:12pm

[elmh23]

We're Catholic and most Catholic churches don't have nurseries (including ours.) What we do at that age is bring a sippy of water, a magna doodle and a couple cloth, non-noise making books. We don't give snacks at church and I won't do juice because the last thing I need is my already hyper toddler hyped up on sugar. When all else fails, dh either stand in the back with the babe (which for some reason keeps them quiet, maybe cause they can see everything?) or if they're being really loud, we go to the cry room. We hate the cry room though because we're strict and make our kids sit down and behave while everyone else lets their kids run amok.

[weliveintheforest]

an aquadoodle board might be nice, it comes with a marker that is just water, and doesn't make any mess.

[LDSmomma]

Originally Posted by elmh23

We don't give snacks at church and I won't do juice because the last thing I need is my already hyper toddler hyped up on sugar.

Originally Posted by hakeber

Just a thought, but if you are giving him juice and fruit (when he is not used to sweet drinks and snacks) at church when you want him to be quiet...I mean wouldn't that make him more hyper and more prone to energry bursts?

I've done some research on this (way before pregnancy, while a preschool teacher), and I think for *most* kids, sugar making them hyper is an old wives tale. For sure, I've never noticed in DS that sugar makes him act any different. While drinking the juice, he sits nice and still and sucks down every last gulp, which can give us at least 10 minutes of quiet, so I save the juice for the quietest part of the service.

[LDSmomma]

Originally Posted by MommyKrista

However, I don't let my kids "run" or pace the halls- if they have to be taken out of SM or class they sit in my lap. Like PP mentioned, it's pretty boring so they learn quickly that they'd rather be doing something else.

Originally Posted by Farmer'sWife

Yep, I try to make going out of the service as boring as possible so as to not encourage it. My toddler knows there are toys in the "family room" and would want to spend the entire time in there if she could.

Originally Posted by LemonPie

Honestly, I find that going out during Sacrament Meeting and letting them play/wander in the halls works against me. If we have to take them out because they're too noisy, they stay in-arms and they don't get to get down and play. My older two figured out pretty quickly that it was more fun to be in SM than out.

When I try to get DS to sit in my lap, he screams and wriggles his way out, fighting me to get loose. I like the *idea* of having him sit in my lap in the halls, since it's boring, and he should figure out it's way better to be in the chapel, but I think I'd have to hurt him to keep him in my lap, kwim? My purpose in letting him walk around is that he can only stay quiet and relatively still for so long, so we let him get energy out by walking a lap around the building. BUT, I totally get it that he may look forward to that, and it doesn't encourage him to sit still during the meetings. Any ideas??

[LDSmomma]

Lots of people suggested "non-messy" snacks. The best I've come up with is dried fruit and cheese. Any other ideas? We don't do cereal or other crackers that are made by extrusion. I have home-made crackers, but they're VERY crumby. Most of the time, he spits cheese out, and when I've tried regular fruit, he gets it all over his clothes, then starts squeezing it in his fists. At home, or any other time, he doesn't do these things, so perhaps he did all of this just because he wasn't hungry. New snack ideas would be greatly appreciated, though.

[hakeber]

What about cubes of turkey, or bread, pancakes maybe? TBH, I'd skip the snacks and nurse if I could.

[hakeber]

Originally Posted by LDSmomma

I've done some research on this (way before pregnancy, while a preschool teacher), and I think for *most* kids, sugar making them hyper is an old wives tale. For sure, I've never noticed in DS that sugar makes him act any different. While drinking the juice, he sits nice and still and sucks down every last gulp, which can give us at least 10 minutes of quiet, so I save the juice for the quietest part of the service.

Yeah, I have heard it is an old wives tale as well, but my ds definitely acts wild after having too much sugar, but it could also be the dyes and preservatives that go hand in hand with most sweet things he has been exposed to. Who knows?

[frontierpsych]

I need to save this thread! My 18 mo is extremely high energy, and not easily distractable.