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Toddler Tips Two to Five
1.Sippy cup problems? If your child is unable or unwilling to tip up a sip cup try a reusable straw drink container. Small children tend to suck more readily than tip up a cup and this will encourage less bottle use!
2. Bee Stings: When someone gets a bee sting, quickly make a thick paste of baking soda and water and leave it on the bite area for about 15 minutes. It works!
3. Bathroom Vocabulary Our two-year-old daughter did not know how to say tissue (meaning bathroom tissue). Therefore, when the roll was empty and she couldn't leave, she would yell: "Would someone please bring me some tenny shoe?"
4. Bowl Gripper: When your little ones decide it's time for self-feeding, try holding their bowl to the table with a rubber suction-type soap-gripper - the type that's about 3 inches round, with dozens of little suction cups on each side. The oval grips are washable and have surprising cling strength. When the bowl is empty (or sometimes before!) your little one will work at un-sticking it from the table or high-chair surface - a great hand-eye coordination exercise!
5. Clean Potty: Use cheap coffee filters to line the potty and then just dump it in the commode after use. This way the potty is always clean.
6. Colors: To teach my 4-year-old colors, I associate Sesame Street characters (and characters from other shows) to the color. Elmo - Red - apple Big Bird - Yellow - banana Oscar - Green - grass Now when I ask her the colors, she responds Elmo red, Oscar green, etc. Seemed to work for us!
7. Counting to Cleanliness: To teach my 3 1/2 year old to wash her hands more thoroughly, I encourage her to count to 10 once she has had 2 squirts of liquid soap on her hands. (5 on the fronts, and 5 on the backs) Then count again for rinsing. This helps to be sure that the soap is actually doing something, and also helps her learn to count. We might just go to 15 soon!
8. Crayon on Walls: If you have a child that decides to use crayons on your nicely painted walls use hairspray and then hot soapy water to take it off.
9. Easy mealtime clean-up: After mealtime while your child is still in the high chair -give them a warm washcloth to play with and you'll be amazed at how much they will have cleaned themselves up after about 10 minutes of playing with it! Submitted By: Julie Hollar
10. Finger nail polish>>oops! My 2-year-old toddler got into her sister's red (of all colors!) finger nail polish and painted her body and my kitchen floor! how now to get it off? My older daughter came up with the brilliant idea of using Windex window cleaner.... worked like a charm.... cleaned toddler and floor up and left nearly a trace of polish on either!! Submitted By: teresa
11. Homemade colored shampoo: Just like the blue Blues Clues soap only doesn't leave tints on child. Fill container with regular baby shampoo, add as much food coloring drops as like for shade, and shake. Now they can paint themselves with soap - perfect for an independent toddler.
12. Bed Wetter: Reduce those late-night sheet changes during potty training by layering the bed with a regular sheet, a plastic sheet, and a regular sheet. This way all you have to do is remove a layer of the regular and plastic sheets, allowing everyone can get back to sleep quickly.
13. Crayon on Walls: If you have a child that decides to use crayons on your nicely painted walls use hairspray and then hot soapy water to take it off. - Submitted by Terry McLaughlin East Orange, NJ
14.Easy Mealtime Clean-Up: After mealtime while your child is still in the high chair -give them a warm washcloth to play with and you'll be amazed at how much they will have cleaned themselves up after about 10 minutes of playing with it! - Submitted by Lesley Furgle Philadelphia, PA
15. Fluids For a Sick Toddler: When my toddler son would get a cold, I wanted to avoid giving him a lot of milk because it made him much more mucusy. I would substitute a couple of bottles of milk with warm chicken stock in his bottle or sip cup (best to use low sodium kind). It always seemed to soothe him and he loved it. I guess there is something to the old "chicken soup for a cold" thing!
16. Frugal Bath time Fun: I'm sure many of your kids already like to play with your old shampoo bottles in the tub. Add another element with colorful plastic funnels of different sizes. These can be purchased for less than $1 each in the automotive department at Wal-Mart. My 3 year old son loves to see the water twirl down into the funnel.
17. Getting Band-Aids Off: My 2 and a half-year-old daughter found it was very fun to stick on Band-Aids, but not much fun when it was time for them to be taken off. I found that creamy baby oil was the answer. Rub it into the Band-Aid and under the pad, and soon they'll lift right off. No more tears.
18. Getting Kids to Drink Milk: For children, who don’t care for milk, add a few drops of food coloring and serve with straws.
19. Getting The Medicine Down You can get youngsters to take their medicine by crumbling it and mixing it into their favorite pudding.
20. Keep Drinking Glass in Hands: Wrap a child’s glass or baby bottle with rubber bands so it won’t slip out of tiny hands.
21. Leaking Potty: When we started potty training our son the potty chair was a good one but it still leaked or he would miss, so we bought one of those plastic tablecloths at Wal-Mart that are 1.75 and put it underneath the potty so it did not make such a mess we could just wipe it up.
22. Make Picking Up Toys Fun: Let your small children collect their toys in sand buckets when cleaning their rooms. They can just fill them up and set them in the corner for the next day's play
23. Messy Eaters: Have one of those toddlers that like to touch their hair while eating food items that they dip in ketchup? I would put one of those new Saran Wrap disposable lids on her head like a shower cap. They are easily washed off for re-use. It saves them getting all that yucky stuff in their hair that is sometimes hard to get out
24. Movie Time: My toddler loves the new "max and ruby" show...I have been unable to find a pre-printed VCR movie at any of our locals stores. Each morning I tape "Max and Ruby" for my child...and she has her favorite show whenever she wants to watch it! This will work for any favorite show and mommy can pop the movie in any time she needs a break!
25. Potty Training? My son is 2 1/2 years old. It was always a fight to get him to go potty. Well I made him his "potty reward jar" I put some of his favorite things in there, so when he goes potty he gets a prize. It works really well, almost too well. He can't wait to go to the bathroom now. Just for that prize. - Submitted by Carly Dorsey Vineland, NJ
26. Potty Training? Can't get your little boy to potty in the potty? Try throwing a magnet in the toilet and telling them to aim for it. I know it sounds crazy but it works.
27. Stress Less Meals: I bought a small battery operated fan that I bring with me to restaurants to quickly cool down my sons food. It saves time and makes dinner less stressful!
28. Tantrums: I have two children, now four and five. When each of them threw their "first" tantrum, I simply lied next to them and began to kick, fuss and thrash around. That was the last tantrum either of them ever threw as they both stopped mid-tantrum, looked at me as though I had lost my mind, and backed out of the room!!
29. Teaching Toddlers Self-Feeding: Practice spoon-feeding in-between meals when your little one isn't hungry. Use cool whip since it is lightweight and won't fall off so easily. It's easy to clean up!
30. Those First Toddling Steps: As soon as my children start walking around the house and are ready for shoes, I put bells on the laces. This way you can always hear where they are. I also found that if you don't hear jingling, they have stopped somewhere to investigate, or find trouble.
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