Discipline and Temper Tantrums
Your baby is too young to be punished, but it's never too early for a little discipline. What's the difference? True discipline involves teaching your child, to encourage good behavior and eliminate bad behaviors. Trying to stop behaviors that you think are bad doesn't mean that you will punish your baby, though. Instead of a time-out or taking away a toy for the rest of the day, as you might do with an older child, you can simply say “no” firmly and remove your child from the situation, whether he is hitting or biting another child or pulling all of the leaves off of your houseplants.
If you have properly childproofed your home, your child shouldn't be able to get into too much trouble at this age. If your child does start having temper tantrums at this age, it is important to simply not give in to them. If you do, you will reinforce crying or having a tantrum as the right way to get something he wants. If you don't give in to tantrums, even occasionally, sooner or later your child will learn that they don't work.
Although you can discipline your infant at this age, you shouldn't spank or punish your child. What you consider misbehavior at this age is really just your child exploring his world and seeing what kind of reaction he can get from you. It is normal behavior for older infants to look at you and then do something that you have told them not to do.
