DS has been having terrible temper tantrums lately (screaming, tossing his body around, stomping his feet, etc) and he is only 10.5 months. I know they are part of their development, but I really want to get a hold of them before they get out of control, although I'm not sure what the appropriate course of action is for a child of this age. Any tips, tricks and/or resources would be appreciated!
-
I'm excited to hear some answers. LO is only 7 1/2 months and throws tiny temper tantrums. When she can't have what she wants (like if something isn't safe for her to play with so we won't let her have it) she'll throw her little arms down and whine. I think it's adorable, but I know as time goes on it will get less and less adorable so I'd like to know what I can do about it, if anything.
-
My SIL's little guy is actually near 5 now and still does that - sorry, I know it's the last thing you want to hear - but he's so melodramatic it's actually funny. Any little thing where he doesn't get his way, he's throwing his arms back like he's in an opera or something. Lately she laughs at him and that seems to be getting results! I wouldn't be able to, myself, I'm too cranky- but don't they say ignore the bad behaviour, praise the good?
-
@aunt pol: I laugh too but I thought that would be bad. Ignoring the bad behavior is smart though- I'll start doing that!
-
i definitely ignore the temper tantrums that occur for no reason. i just walk away and after a few minutes she stops and is normal again. seems to work!
-
My LO is also 10.5 months old, and I choose to ignore his tantrums. He is quite persistent and sheds a few tears. After a few minutes he will calm down and act like nothing ever happened. Now the difficult part is figuring out how to deal with his tantrums when we're outside of the house.
-
@yin: just ignore the horrified judgey people too:) If LO sees you having a bad reaction when there are people around, it makes the tantrum that much more fun! MIL talks about how daughter S was a divil for that- if there were visitors over she'd really act up cos she thought her mother would be too embarrassed to punish her in front of them. That ended the day MIL turned the brat over her knee and swatted her bum, regardless of guests hiding smiles:). Not saying you must swat, but thicken your skin and ignore it out of the house if you ignore it in the house- hopefully you won't have to endure too many episodes before the lesson sinks in!
-
Hmm....My LO went through a short phase like this at around 10 or 11 months and thankfully now, he doesn't throw them often (maybe a few times a week?). What worked for us is using natural consequences (not sure if that's the right terminology).
But anyway, we wanted to teach him what "hot", "cold" and "ouch" meant, since those are the 3 main things that would be reasons for not allowing him to do something. So if we had a coffee mug and it was hot, we would let him touch the outside of it with one finger and we would say "Hot! Hot!" and then he would pull back his finger. Anytime he reached for it (and within reason of course...it can't be scalding hot & dangerous obviously), we would let him touch it and go "Ouch! Hot!". Overtime, he knew what "hot" really meant (hot = hurts my finger). So anytime he would want to touch something hot, I would say "No. Hot!" and he would retract his hand. Initially we wouldn't even let him touch the mug, fearing that he might get hurt. But we realized that he has to experience it himself so we used it as part of a teaching lesson. Sometimes we would even purposely put his hand on the mug and say "See? Hot!" and he would retract his hand immediately.
Man, it took a while to reach (months of "training) there but now he "knows" what hot, cold and ouch means. And if we say one of those words, he won't go near it. It's hard not to "lie" to him though. Like if he wants to touch something that's fragile or something, I'm so tempted to say "hot!" but once I lie to him, the whole thing goes out the window. So we're 100% honest every time. This REALLY helped reduce a majority of temper tantrums now (at 22 months) because we started teaching him at an early age.
-
LO went through a short temper tantrum phase. I nipped it in the bud. Don't give in and say NO firmly.
-
@aunt pol: my nephew is 13 and STILL does that, hence the reason I really want to get control of them. My SIL always laughed at him which did make them worse.
@yin: DS is the same way! Glad to know someone else around his age acts the same.
@banana: we do a similar thing in those instances. A lot of DS's tantrums have to do with me putting him down or moving him when I cannot hold him. It's also hard with the lying thing like you said because sometimes the thing he wants is food which he's allergic to, but it's like not all foods are bad (like all things hot or sharp are).
@chopsuey119: I usually move him and then put my face right at eye level and say "No". Is that similar to what you did?
-
@anbanan15: Yep! Hopefully he'll stop the tantrums soon!
-
I walk away. If he persists, I put him in time out until he stops. Works. so far. not sure its the best way to go about it.
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
11 comments