Comments on: My Child is Acting Like a Baby

By: Jami Wanamaker

Jami Wanamaker — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 15:51:47 +0000

In reply to Sam. Same boat and questions… how long does this last?

By: KDA

KDA — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 18:25:32 +0000

Hi Janet,
Thanks for this article! My son is 2 years 7 months, my daughter is 13 months. For about the past two months, my son has been doing a lot of pushing and hitting. Directed at myself and my husband, his baby sister, our (very gentle) dog, and to his peers at daycare. It isn’t in response to anything (like a toy being taken by another child, for example) – it comes out of nowhere. He’ll just be reading a book with me, for example, and then hit me in the face. Similarly with kids at school -he actually does pretty well with reacting when someone takes a toy, for example, he does not usually hit in that situation but instead usually shouts something like STILL USING IT. The pushing / hitting just comes out of nowhere, for example, walking up to a school friend and pushing them. I do think it is an attention-getting mechanism and probably is a reaction on some level to his sister now being able to walk and play with the same toys he does at home (more of a “person” like you mentioned in this article). He does some of this “I’m a baby” stuff too which we’ve generally just accepted and gone along with. However, understanding that’s likely where this is coming from isn’t helping us stop the behavior. He gets lots of 1-1 time with both parents and we are very affirming of his feelings. Ultimately hitting and pushing aren’t OK and that is a hard boundary in our family. Simply removing him from the situation and saying something like, “I won’t let you hurt your sister” is not working. (The teachers at his daycare use this general method as well.) He just hits again 5 seconds later. We generally react very calmly when responding to this, but like the commenter above, I am finding this “disturbing” – maybe not the exact word I’d use but generally, this is behavior that isn’t OK and I can’t just simply let it go. Do you have any suggestions for helping him move beyond this? Thank you!

By: Erica reed

Erica reed — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 06:36:46 +0000

Here’s my concern. My 5 and a half year old son is doing this. No siblings, it’s been nearly 2 years since we moved. And while he IS perfectly capable of doing things like putting on socks and dressing himself… Often he will adamantly refuse and insist on us doing it for him. Or insist on us sitting in his room while he changes or in the bathroom while peeing. Or begs to sit on our lap at dinner. Or that he is too tired to walk upstairs to bed. It’s completely random… One minute he is totally capable… The next he is utterly unable to do what needs to be done. And he keeps saying something about being a baby and that’s why he can’t. For example, I was SHOCKED this morning when he got himself dressed and made his bed without me saying a word… Then when we were getting ready to leave, he lost his mind and insisted that he “forgot” how to put on his socks and that it was too difficult because he was just a baby. Laying on his back – feet in the air. He puts his socks on by himself all the time. But today… No Go. I finally did it so we wouldn’t be late… And he promptly buckled himself completely into his car seat…. Something he has rarely done… To say it is frustrating is an understatement.

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 15:12:28 +0000

My 2 year 8 month old daughter has been doing this for 4 or 5 months now. We thought the phase would pass by now, but it’s getting more intense. She spends a vast majority of day wanting to be a baby (most of the time) or a kitty. We certainly want to foster her imagination, but at this point as soon as she says “I’m a baby” my blood begins to boil. Sometimes I have the energy to play along, sometimes I say she can do that, but I’m not going to play with her, and other times we’ve tried giving her 30 minutes of “baby time” during the day.

We can’t figure out the root– no new siblings, she gets lots of attention, we’ve backed off using any sort of big girl comparisons. As it’s gone on so long, I’ve started wondered if we’re doing something to make it keep happening. We’re trying to find boundaries to put in place to keep our insanity, but we’re struggling to figure out what’s important. We’ve started by saying no baby during mealtimes and let her know that we really miss spending time with her. How long does this normally go on? Any advice?

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 11:22:08 +0000

In reply to TM. Agree! My 2 year old 10 month old is going through the same thing. She wants to see videos and pictures of herself as a baby. She asks questions about it. She wants me to put her in her pjs instead of doing it herself bc ‘she’s a baby’. She crawls around the house when she’s playing pretend by herself. It feels like a natural part of development (she is an only child and nothing has changed in her environment). She is simply aware of her own growth. I like Janet’s recommendations for how to handle it - particularly the one about be fully in or fully out. That’s a great reminder. Thank you!

By: janet

janet — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 20:58:07 +0000

In reply to Kelly. Kelly- Yes, this is normal... and the key to why it is continuing is here: "I’m finding this disturbing." When children sense we have these kinds of feelings about their behavior, they tend to keep trying this out with us.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 07:16:08 +0000

Thank you all, this has been helpful. My 21 month old baby started to mimic the younger child from her Dayhome that she went to for about 3 weeks. I took her out as there were some types of care differences that Iwasn’t willing to let slide. My Daughter had begun to mimic the 14 month old and it is getting worse. She is now behaving exactly like the baby 75 percent of the day. Its been 2 weeks since she has been there. She is behaving like this child in all areas, language, physical ability, or lack there-of, facial expreessions, physical expressions etc. I’m finding this disturbing and wondering if this is normal or if I should seek help from professionals in the matter? I look forward to your reply.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 19:06:02 +0000

Thank you for another timely read for our family! No new siblings here either, but our 3 year and 1 month old twins are doing plenty of role playing too. At times they’re their older cousins, other times characters from books and (dare I say it) TV and in between they’re babies. I’ve played along with it too so far and asked my daughter (she pretends to be a baby more often than my son) whether she is doing that because she wants more of my attention and she said, “yes”. I’ve had a small nagging concern about it, but this article has put my mind completely at ease. Also, very interesting about the brain development / regression / reconnection: this morning my son was doing a puzzle (only about 8 pieces) and asked him, “isn’t that too easy for you now, my boy?” and he said, “no mom, it’s still fun” … Pretty silly comment on my behalf and regretted it instantly, and now I understand even more,just how foolish I was!

By: Kendall Meikenhous

Kendall Meikenhous — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 16:51:26 +0000

So interesting! I’m expecting in about 6 weeks and my almost 2-year-old has just started doing this. Yesterday we played a game for several minutes where she would stop her play, say “aww, baby cry” and run to my lap for a hug. She’s wanting more help at mealtimes too. I told my husband I thought she was processing the impending arrival, because while she may not know what exactly is coming, she’s a smart girl and has heard us talking about it enough to get an idea.

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 20:29:44 +0000

Very well written and helpful.

I was just wondering about imitating older children. My 3,5 year old son has started imitating his cousins, which are older than him. But he imitates their negative behavior, such as fighting with other children. How should I deal with that? Due to our family’s circumstances it is not possible to avoid all contact.