I'm dying here. About four months ago, DS adopted this horrible habit of squealing/screaming at the top of his lungs. I have no idea why he's doing it- sometimes it's for fun, sometimes it's because he's upset, it's just all. Damn. Day. We measured how loud it is- over 93 decibels, and at a really, really high pitch. Hearing loss starts at repeated exposure over 84 decibels, and my husband has been commenting on how I can't hear as well as I could a while ago- if there's background noise, I can't hear him from the other room, when I used to be able to hear him no problem. I'm worried about DD, since she's usually near him. We've tried all kinds of things to get DS to stop- shushing, putting our fingers over his mouth when he does it, demonstrating the sounds we want him to make, ignoring it (which just makes it worse). I don't know what else to do. I'm worried about DD's hearing (and DS's for that matter). The squeal/scream HURTS my ears, so I can't imagine what it's doing to DD. Is there any other way to teach him that this noise is not OK to make? He's only 9 months old, so it's not like I can explain things to him.
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yikes! that sounds tough- there really isn't much you can do to get them to listen at 9 months though
That seems really loud, is it all day, every day, or just at random times? Have you mentioned this to their pediatrician?
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It's random yet constant, if that makes sense. I can't predict it, but 15 minutes doesn't go by without it happening. They have a doctor appointment on Thursday, and I'll ask her then. I'm pretty sure all I'm going to get is a, "Suck it up, babies are tough" statement. Argh. It's just SO LOUD.
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@meganmp: Does he seem to hear OK? I wonder if he has a tough time hearing and he doesn't realize he's being so loud?
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my dd does this. no idea how to stop it, we try to distract her when she starts doing it. I feel like we're conditioning her to scream though because she will scream when she drops something and we will pick it up for her.
@meganmp: I never thought to measure how loud she is screaming, how did you do this?
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We have some experience with this... The party line was, "no screaming" and then withdrawing all attention until the screaming stopped. With that method, we completely got the screaming to go away in three days. But you have to completely ignore them. Then you reinforce when they are playing or doing something quietly.
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@MamaMoose: I think so? He looks at me and smiles when I call his name in a normal tone of voice (I just tried it in a whisper and he heard me).
@bunnylove08: We measured via the super accurate way of my FIL's iPhone. It has an app.
@Mrs. Jacks: When we tried this, it evolved (dissolved is more like it) into a complete and utter meltdown, where the screaming gets even louder. He screams hard enough that he breaks the blood vessels in his forehead (or something like that. His forehead is covered in spots for hours afterwards). Should we keep at it? I'm worried for everyone's hearing. We have been reinforcing it whenever he makes an acceptable noise, because he responds well to the attention. -
@meganmp: it usually does devolve into full on meltdowns. But I always say, "I can't help you until you calm down". We've had really good success with it, but we were dealing with a 12 month old, so I don't know if that makes a difference?
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@meganmp: We have done something similar with sleep training at that age. I hate to say this, but like puppies, you encourage good behavior with a good action, and discourage bad behavior by ignoring. For sleep training, if she didn't lay down, we would leave the room (aka make her even madder). It had to be an immediate consequence to the action, no warnings. She picked it up REALLY fast. Standing up = mom and dad leaving. Laying down = mom and dad staying. I think you could do the same with the screaming
That seems really loud, is it all day, every day, or just at random times? Have you mentioned this to their pediatrician?
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