DS will be turning 2 on Saturday and has recently fell into a huge tantrum phase. I would normally have no problem ignoring the tantrum, but if you ignore it or walk away he starts banging his head on the floor repeatedly. His tantrums usually involve trying to hit, kick, or bang his head into us and we end up having to restrain him and try to talk him out of it. We are kind of at our wit's end with this all. I try so hard to talk him through the day and help him understand what we need to do next, give choices, but sometimes he can't have a choice in the matter. For example, last night he was washing his hands. I warned him that we would have to turn off the water, he didn't turn it off so I did. Cue the fight: hitting, kicking, screaming.

I know that in the moment when he is freaking out he is too emotionally ramped up to really learn or hear what we are saying, but I feel like he needs something as a consequence for his behavior. We aren't going to spank him because I feel like it is teaching exactly what we want to stop (Mommy is hitting you because you didn't listen to her, DS is hitting us because we didn't give him what he wanted)

What is your child's consequence for aggressive behavior? Any ideas for how to help these tantrums to go away? I just feel like I am going to lose my mind if this keeps going on all the time!