Tantrums...

Lately Hailey has been throwing some pretty good fits. Particularly if she's tired and something does not go HER way she will scream at the top of her lungs. Today I moved the car keys out of her reach before she even got too close to them and she threw a fit. How do you handle this behavior at her age? I saw several people said they put their child in the crib to cool down, is she too young for this? Is it just a stage? I'm hoping we will not have to deal with major tantrums later on.

 

Mine went through a terrible tantrum stage right around when they turned one and what we did was ignore them and just go about our business. We discovered the less of a reaction we gave, the less of a tantrum they threw. They'll throw tantrums still but nothing like they did a couple of months ago. Hang in there, Momma! They will get past it eventually!

 

We ignore them too. I'll either just walk away or play with the other one who is not throwing a fit.

 

We ignore the tantrums, too. Seems to work the best at this age!

 

I would give her something else or redirect her to something more interesting. A crinkly bag, a shiny object, or anything new will seem interesting to babies at this age just as well as a set of keys.

 

We also ignore the tantrums. My girls rarely throw tantrums anymore, and if they do its very short lived. Good Luck! Tantrums are beyond frustrating!!

 

I would try a brief distraction and if that didn't work then ignore the tantrum. So with the situation you described I'd move the keys and say "You can't have the keys to play with. Look! You can play with (insert fun item here)!" If she was still screaming at this point then I'd walk away and get involved playing with the other twin-often the one having the tantrum would come over pretty quickly to see what was going on.

I wouldn't put her in her crib because 1. It's more work/takes longer and 2. I wouldn't want to cause a negative association with the crib.

 

Thank you for posting this
We are going through the same thing with DD!!
It is terrible when we are out in public too! We tried to grocery shop the other day and I ended up having to take her out to the car while DH finished up with DS.
I don't have any advise but, I'm hoping this is just a phase and it will pass!
Hang in there you are not alone.
Take Care,
Nadana

 

Redirection worked well for us at that age. Around 18 months we did time to cool off in the crib, and shortly after that we started ignoring. Tantrums are hard! :hug:

 

It depends on whether they are truly inconsolable. If I can get their attention by doing something silly then I use redirection, but if they've gone past the point of no return (and they are tired/hungry), I will make sure they are in a safe place and calmly say "I know you are upset," and then ignore it. Sometimes when I tried to redirect at that age, it just made the whole thing worse, but sometimes the redirection works and they snapped out of it. :hug:

 

I think at that very young age it's good to acknowledge their feelings, offer a bit of TLC, and know that it's OKAY for them to cry and fuss sometimes. Just leave them to it for a minute or two and then offer more TLC. At 13 months old they don't have any words and crying is literally the only way they have to tell you that they're VERY ANNOYED that you're not giving them the keys.