DS discovering his world

[Veronique]

I am new to discipline and have a few questions.

My son is 8 months old and is just discovering the world around him. Clearly, sometimes he gets his little paws on dangerous items; pens, chokable items etc.
Also, when he's crawling around he climbs upon something and risks falling (we have tile floors throughout the house).
So, I always *panic* and say, "no!" Not really yelling, but it's more of a knee-jerk reaction when I see DS doing something potentially harmful.
We try to keep the house safe, but there is no getting around it.

At this age of 8 months, what do I do if he accidentally grabs a pen, for example, and i want to take it away from him. He always cries when I take his things from him.

[mothragirl]

when he has something you need to take away, give him something interesting to play with instead so he gets distracted. if hes about to fall, stand behind him to catch him or redirect him toward something else. you have to replace the fun, not just take it away. it keeps me busy all day long

[Magella]

Ooooh, grabbing potentially dangerous things is so exciting! This was so easy to deal with when my first was little, and then when my other two little ones came along there were all these little dangerous pieces of things laying around from the older child(ren)'s toys.

I always did one of two things, depending: 1) I have no problem with letting my baby (even 8 months old) explore a pen with supervision. Just sit next to her or hold her on my lap and let her touch and explore it. There are plenty of things that can be handled safely by baby with me right there supervising. 2) when I can't supervise or the item is one that I don't think can be explored safely it's "oh, you found a pen! Wow! Let's trade, give mama the pen and you can have [this fascinating and wonderful item]!" (or "ooooh, a pen! Let's put it back! (make as much fun as possible of putting the pen away and moving on to some other fun activity.")

Distraction. Redirection. Supervision. Repetition.

[boongirl]

Originally Posted by sledg

Distraction. Redirection. Supervision. Repetition.

And, I would add, make the environment a safe place for the child to explore to his or her heart's content. Put up out of reach anything that you do not want the child to explore. Get baby gates or cupboard locks if you have a very curious explorer. That way, parents can relax a bit and allow little one to enjoy the world around him. Yelling "no" does absolutely nothing to deter little ones.