Double meltdowns

LittleLady77 · May 2014

How do you deal with this situation when you're alone. Currently I try food, diapers, binkys, the stroller/car ride and if all else fails I strap one in the Ergo, sling the other over my shoulder and bounce on my yoga ball. What are your techniques?

SV917 · May 2014

I put one in the swing while I try to get the other under control and then handle the one in the swing. If that doesn't work, I join in and make it a triple meltdown.

Scorpgirl444 · May 2014

Mine are going to be 22 months tomorrow. They don't have serious double meltdowns very often but when they do, I try to cuddle with them, tell them it's ok or distract them with other things.

Today my son was having a meltdown in a store. Luckily my daughter did not start also. I told him he was so so sad. That made him laugh. I kept repeating...so so sad. He started laughing even harder. Came to a point where an employee came to see them because she was wondering who was laughing so hard.

Sometimes it's silly things like that, that work.

katiebenes · May 2014

My bag of soothing tricks include:

At home:
Swings, tummy time, back time, bouncers, binkies, bottles, blankets, peek-a-boo and a magical channel called scope (if you don't have roku, look up kaleidoscopes on youtube.), mythbuster's (specifically explosions. I play the explosion special and they giggle)

Away:

stroller, Caleb in the ring sling, binkies, bottles, awkward singing, playing a youtube kaleidoscope on my phone or tablet, spinning, looking up people with accents on youtube (don't judge, John loves accents)

More often than not I perform triage. I look at the two, assess who will quiet down quicker, get them set then move on to the other one.

ballygirl · May 2014

oh - these were so stressful in the early days. My girls were screamers and sometimes, even with two people there, they would scream and cry for an hour or more and were completely inconsolable. I never really figured out why. In those first few months when I was alone with them, I very often could not stop these. I would try to cuddle both at once, but it usually didn't work and I usually would just end up on the couch with both of them and all three of us would be in tears. My girls hated all carriers, hated the swing, hated being rocked. They just wanted to be cradled in my arms and walked around the house - I couldn't even sit with them and I just couldn't do with 2 once they got to be about 1 month old. It was really stressful for me. Pacifiers helped a lot and nursing/feeding just for comfort.

I will say that somewhere around 4-5 months it became MUCH easier to shut these double freakouts down. Once they started responding more to my face or voice, I could hold one and look at, smile, sing to, or make funny faces at the other one and usually they would be distracted enough to come out of it. At 6 months we rarely have any double meltdowns unless they get overtired and usually they don't last very long any more.

Hang in there! It will get easier soon!

jezebel57 · May 2014

I hold both and bounce and shush and we all cry .

usually only happens when they are tired though thank goodness!

raraavis28 · May 2014

My techniques at that age were pretty similar to the ones you mentioned.....I recall more than one instance of just pacing the floors holding both of them. I did find that getting a swing was a life-saver! Now I bribe them w/ Goldfish crackers.....kidding.....

LittleLady77 · May 2014

Thanks guys. Double meltdowns are really hard for me in this phase. I'm looking forward to the days when I can calm them with my voice... And gold fish crackers :P

LittleLady77 · May 2014

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