Mercy Network
Mercy Family Clinic
Pediatric and Adolescent
Two Years
Behavior and Development
- Reach agreement with all family members on how to encourage your child’s emerging independence while maintaining consistent limits. Offer choices whenever possible. Many conflicts can be avoided by providing your child with several options, each of which is acceptable to you, e.g., “Red pants or blue ones?” “Do you want to wear a sweater or a jacket when you go out to play?”
- Establish family rules for meal times, bedtime, and getting ready in the morning. Be consistent.
- Praise your child for good behavior and accomplishments.
- The rate of language development is highly dependent on the family environment.
- Limit the amount of television and monitor the types of programs she watches. Model appropriate language. Read a book to your child every day. Go to the library often. Sing songs and talk about what you and she are seeing and doing together. Share meals as a family whenever possible. Spend time talking to each other.
- Each parent should arrange time one-on-one with each of the children. Play with your child. Focus on activities that she expresses interest in and enjoys. Take walks, paint and do puzzles together.
- Show affection in the family. Hug and hold your child. Help her express such feelings as joy, anger, sadness, fear, and frustration.
- Children at this age play parallel with other children. Do not expect her to share play activities or toys with another child. Attempt to resolve conflicts without taking sides. If a conflict arises about a toy, the toy can be put in time out.
Injury Prevention
- Because of your child’s increasing abilities and wish to demonstrate them, you need to be increasingly watchful for injuries, especially at times of increased family stress.
- Exclude poisons, medications, and toxic household products from the home or keep them in locked cabinets. Your child can climb and reach most areas.
- Ensure that electric wires, outlets, and appliances are inaccessible or protected.
- Guard against falls. Use locked doors or gates at the top and bottom of stairs and safety devices on windows. Supervise your child when she is on stairs.
- Do not feed foods that can be easily aspirated. An adult should watch your child at all times while eating. Do not allow her to play or run about while eating.
- Guns in the home are dangerous to the family. If a gun is kept in the home, lockup the gun and ammunition in separate locations.
- Never leave your child alone in the car or the house or while taking a bath.
SLEEP
Most children continue to take one nap per day. Even if they do not sleep, it is wise to insist on a quiet period of rest at a regular time each day.Your child should have a regular hour for bedtime and a predictable bedtime routine. She should be expected to fall asleep in her own bed and to sleep there through the night. Bedtime book reading promotes language development and is often an effective part of a quiet bedtime routine.
Nutrition
- Serve your child meals with the family and give her two to three nutritious snacks of fruits and vegetables.
- Offer nutritious foods and let her decide what and how much to eat. She will eat a lot one time and not much the next.
- You should choose the menu. Serve a variety of foods.
- Let your child experiment with food. Avoid engaging in struggles about eating.
- She should be drinking from a cup or a glass exclusively.
- Give multivitamins if her diet is consistently inadequate.
Toilet Training
- Toilet training is a developmental process, like sitting or walking. You cannot make it happen. When your child is ready, she will learn to use the toilet. Wait for her to request to use the toilet.
- Signs that your child is ready to use the potty or toilet are: She is dry for two hours, knows the difference between wet and dry, can pull her pants up and down, wants to learn, and can give a signal when she is about to have a bowel movement.
- It is appropriate to obtain a potty chair around this age, to discuss its purpose, and to allow her to observe you using the toilet.