Screaming

LittleNugget93

Oh my goodness I don't even know where to start. My daughter is a screamer. It's her favorite thing in the world. She screams when she is excited and screams when she is angry. It just never ends. I can hardly tolerate anymore and I find myself getting to the end of my rope every time she starts. It just makes my head throb. 

I really really do not want this to continue and I have no idea what to do. Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

Emerald27

What have you done so far? Also, how old is LO?

If she is excited you can tell her "Shhh. I see that you are happy. Please use your inside voice and talk quietly" and show her another way to express her excitement...like jumping or high fives. If she's angry, you can say the same thing; "Shhh. I can see that you're upset. Please use your inside voice and talk quietly." And show her another way to express or calm her anger (we like the Daniel Tiger approach to anger, which is counting to 4).

blu-eyedwife

At 6 months, they all go through the "pterodactyl" phase.  At least that's what it sounds like.  Really, there's not much you can do.  It's not quite possible tor reason with them at this time, so your best bet is to ignore.  Like much of everything they do, this is a phase she's testing out and will loose its appeal soon enough.

jesuisfatiguee

I do not miss the pterodactyl phase. Happily, it passes! Though never soon enough… 

Emerald27

Oh, your LO is 6 months! It's totally normal for them to test their voice (and mama's reaction) at this stage. Sorry it's bothering you.

I find that with things like this, it's best to try to ignore them and wait them out, because if LO gets a cool/fun reaction from you, she could learn to make the noise just to see mama jump.

LittleNugget93

blu-eyedwife said:

At 6 months, they all go through the "pterodactyl" phase.  At least that's what it sounds like.  Really, there's not much you can do.  It's not quite possible tor reason with them at this time, so your best bet is to ignore.  Like much of everything they do, this is a phase she's testing out and will loose its appeal soon enough.

I have been calling her a pterodactyl. That is hilarious.

Thank you everyone for your advice. I have started to not react to her screaming and she doesn't scream that much anymore. She "talks" more quietly now.

ReeceFamily

Iblu-eyedwife said:

At 6 months, they all go through the "pterodactyl" phase.  At least that's what it sounds like.  Really, there's not much you can do.  It's not quite possible tor reason with them at this time, so your best bet is to ignore.  Like much of everything they do, this is a phase she's testing out and will loose its appeal soon enough.

So funny, that is what we call it, too!!  All my friend's kids went through this and I was actually looking forward to DD meeting this milestone.