Am I on the right track

[shnitzel]

DD is 17 months and until now I haven`t really disciplined at all, any ``bad`` behaviour was chalked up to her being a baby and redirected but yesterday she looked at me smiled said `no no no` while shaking her head and then proceeded to colour on the floor, I took the markers away and ended our colouring session to many tears, the same thing happened again today. I also made her clean the food she threw on the floor up and when she kicked DH in the face last night I left the room and when she deliberately bit me when nursing (I saw her smile and then felt teeth closing) we ended her nursing session until she kissed me (it was bedtime so she did need to nurse to sleep). Are these age appropriate ways of responding? I feel so harsh but I think she needs some discipline.             How do you keep yourself from laughing when disciplining. DD was so hilarious last night while she was kicking (overtired) that DH and I kept cracking up which was probably counterproductive.

[mom2happy]

All sounds right to me.

At that age it's all about redirecting and doing what you are doing.

She was testing you when she wrote on the floor with crayons. She wanted to see what would happen.

She saw that that resulted in no more coloring. Nice and simple! Good Job.

[pianojazzgirl]

Sounds good to me too.  Regarding the crayons I'd probably start keeping them up out of reach most of the time except for when she's going to be sitting down to draw.  Little toddlers have little impulse control, and so otherwise you might end up with a lot more floor messes to clean before she grows past this stage.

If she's experimenting with food throwing I'd start giving her just a tiny bit of food (a bite or two) on her plate/highchair tray at a time.  Another tip for minimizing the mess, lol!  Also if she's eating heartily, then kind of stops and starts getting more interested in playing with the food (throwing it), it might be a sign that she's done for now, so time to get down from the table.  I love toddler snack trays at an accessible level for grazing at this age, as an alternative to eating at the table (for some meals... if that works for your family).

And biting while nursing... oh yup... boob goes away for a bit then, that's for sure, lol!