Almost four year old playing with food in bed

[erickajen]

I do day care for 2 siblings.... the youngest will be 4 the end of Dec. he has had a habit of getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning and finding food and spreading it all over his room. one time it was eggs and coffee.... another it was peanut butter.... on and on. it has almost been constant, every morning for weeks. sometimes it had been magic marker - he wrote all over his sisters bedroom one night and his body the next. his aunt finally had it when he took a 30$ jug of powdered formula from her sons bag and spread that all over his bed.

anyone have a kid who did this?? what should the mom do to keep this from happening? how long until it stops? i guess the older sister (shes only 8 months older) used to do it but she stopped after getting in trouble only a couple times. the boy is still doing it. any ideas??:

[nonnymoose]

Oh my gosh. Kids are weird, aren't they? The closest I can come is the boys I used to babysit - they were terrors, besides which they were allergic to everything. All they had in their bedroom was two mattresses (they were swinging on the curtains and climbing up the dresser drawers) and their parents stacked baby gates on top of each other to keep them in their room at night. One time I came into the hallway to find one of them on his way over the top one, which was about six feet off the floor. They weren't allowed in the kitchen by themselves because of their allergies. Babysitting them was...interesting.
Anyway, both of them are college graduates, one of them is finishing up medical school, and they've invented a credit-card-sized epi-pen.
Momma needs to put a latch on the pantry door and hide the sharpies.

[queenjane]

Maybe put a door alarm on the bedroom door? That way, if he gets up and leaves his room, the adult will know it and can stop him from getting into mischief.

Also....maybe make him "pay" for the food he's ruined, by working it off? Little chores around the house until the debt is paid?

Put a lock on the fridge or pantry or whatever?


Katherine