The screechy screams! How to stop?

jenchris05

My 23 month old son loves testing his voice. All.the.time. Screechy screams throughout the day, everyday. My husband and I are about to lose it.

We've tried singing, turning on music, redirecting, demonstrating whisper voice repeatedly, leaving the room he's 'in' open floor plan, telling him it hurts our ears. Omg, nothing works. Help!

The only thing we haven't pushed is timeouts. Pedi said with the arrival of his new sis 7 wks and a move to a new home 2 weeks ago, that we really shouldn't start it right now. I have mixed feelings about that but I'm wondering what worked for you? And more importantly, when will this phase pass?????

AimeeL85

Oh how I wish I knew.  DS has been doing the same exact thing.  I am trying so hard to teach him a quiet/indoor voice, especially for when we're in public, but he hasn't grasped it yet.

We are also moving, in a couple weeks...and DS has a baby sister on the way, too...so we're in the same situation all around!

GirlLeastLikelyTo

My son wont stop screaming either.  Please, please, please let it stop.

mrsseguin

Attention is attention, good or bad.  DD screams like crazy...sometimes in fun, sometimes it seems like it's just something to do.  We tried all the same things you did,  nothing worked.  Now, as much as it kills our ears, we ignore it.

kgs0505

All you can do is ignore it. Everytime you give him attention for it, it'll reinforce the behavior. Sucks, but it's the only thing that works.

wendy25

We've tried it all (including ignoring). Unfortunately, I now have a 12 month old and 33 month old who love to have screaming matches to see who can scream the loudest. They think it's hilarious. My DH and I not so much. We used to be able to talk at dinner time but not any more. We can sometimes convince our older soon that it hurts our ears but usually my youngest will start it up again and he can't resist screaming back.

I just want to say...see what you have to look forward to in a year! lol

etude de la vie

we have the same issue. DS screams when excited, happy, angry, sad...pretty much every emotion. 

I do tell him "no screaming" in a calm voice. I did scream back (just like he did in a piercing screech)  one day which did stop him the rest of the day and scared the daylights out of him. I wouldn't suggest it but it worked and I was at my whits end....i actually thought he had ruptured my ear drum that time because he screeched about 2cm from my ear which prompted me to push my head back and scream too.

My ear drum has fluttered at night from the high decibel level and constant screaming during the day. 

PayolaCrayola

My DD never did this until we moved and our neighbors have a child close in age and all she does is scream. Then our DD started to copy her. Ugh. So annoying but i just ignore it cuz if i say anything she will do it more. DH gets all mad but what can you do?

Andie_83

Z was terrible for this when she was a bit younger, she's gotten a lot better. The worse is when she does it in a restaurant, then when I tell her no she laughs at me and does it again. It's so frustrating! Sorry no real advise here, but want to wish you GL!!!