What do I do?? Please help

Meery82

My 19th month old son is melting down as I type this. He has been throwing a tantrum for close to an hour now. I tried feeding him. I figured he was hungry since it was dinner time. Nope. I put on Barney, which he loves. Nothing worked. I finally put him in his room to finish his fit, what we usually do, and it is usually over in a few minutes. He's been in there screaming and throwing himself around on his toys. I'm worried he's going to hurt himself. Am I handling this right? DH and I tried to offer comfort or a sippy a few times, but all we got was slapped at. So now we are just ignoring him. I posted this here since I figured your LOs were right in their temper tantrum prime. Thanks!

amandajeannine

My LO does this a lot. He too gets to the point where he'll bat away anything we try giving him (sippy cup, toys, etc.) Sadly, the only thing that works for us is to give him some time. Go back after a little and offer some comfort and if he's not ready, let him be mad. I've tried other routes- some books say tell them "I get you're mad it's ok to be mad" and encourage big-boy words to express himself. Others say give him something to relieve some stress with (bang on a drum, something like that) so you redirect behavior with something that still lets him express himself, but isn't so negative. BUT, leaving him alone works best for us since he's mostly only doing it for attention.

Meery82

Thanks for the replies. He ended up passing out on the floor for a little bit (apparently those tantrums are exhausting!), but woke up pissed off. DH tried to cuddle him. He let DH hold him but kept crying. I took him and he quieted down and snuggled for a while. Good ideas. I will keep them in mind since there are sure to be more of these.

srcr2011

I know this is late, but I distraction works wonders for my son (he is 3). Especially in public where I can't really ignore the behavior. We do timeouts and the occasional spanking, but distraction is what usually works. He knows he is misbehaving too, once he is calmed and back to himself, he will come and tell us sorry. GL