Whining

How do you cope with a whiny toddler?

Our Mommy MD Guide’s reply: My son became incredibly whinny and clingy as a toddler. He would cry and whimper for hour on end sometimes. I initially made an effort to cater to his whims but that was giving reinforcement to this behavior. Ignoring him did not particularly help. He eventually outgrew this stage, so I would say patience was what helped.

—Bola Oyeyipo-Ajumobi, MD, a mom of four- and one-year-old sons, a family physician in private practice, and the owner of SlimyBookWorm.com, in Highland, CA

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Our Mommy MD Guide’s reply: My daughter started to whine when she was around three, after she began pre-K. When my daughter talked to me in that whiny tone of voice, I simply would say, “What? I can’t understand you when you speak like that. When you were a baby, I was your Mommy, and I could understand your baby talk. But now that you are a big girl, I need your to speak ‘big girl.”

My daughter pretty quickly realized that whining wasn’t having the desired result, and so it stopped.  Every now and again, she’ll whine, but if I consistently remind her that I can’t understand her whining, she’ll stop.

—Christy Valentine, MD, a mom of a six-year-old daughter, a specialist in pediatrics and internal medicine, and the founder of the Valentine Medical Center, in Gretna, LA