Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whine?

I  had a friend ask me how to stop a bad case of whining.  First check to make sure your child isn't watching some show that has a lot of whining in it  (can someone say Cailou???)  Kids are amazing imitators so I would start there.  Next, when they whine I simply say...I'm sorry I couldn't understand you through all that whining, what did you say?  They almost always say whatever they need in a normal voice at that point.  I'm not big on ignoring whining because it's a habit and a bad one at that and habit training is the basis of parenting.  Sometimes I see people try to teach the lesson of not whining by whining themselves back to the kid but I don't think that actually addresses the problem and often times I see the kid getting mad ( or laughing if they're good natured).  The outcome of my advice...her kid doesn't whine now.  It did take 3 or 4 days of constantly saying "I'm sorry I couldn't..." but that's better than than MMMOOOOOMMMMEEEEE!