How to cope with a toddler’s temper tantrum

From ArticleWorld


To cope with a toddler’s temper tantrum can become quite traumatic for you as the parent especially if they become very frequent. Temper tantrums can take the form of whining and crying to screaming and hitting sometimes even biting and hitting. Toddlers begin to have temper tantrums around the age of one-and-a-half and they continue up to the age of three or more. Children generally resort to such behavior when they want something and a show of temper brings much quicker results than asking and waiting around. Children also throw fits when they are tired, sleepy, tired or frustrated. A parent might find the whole experience of the child’s tantrum very frustrating but they can also be used as opportunities to educate the youngster. Here are some hints on how to deal with a toddler’s temper tantrum.

[edit]

A few suggestions

  1. Try and reduce the number of tantrums that the child has just to seek attention. You can do this by rewarding the child by paying attention when he/ she is good.
  2. Do not react to the temper tantrum by losing your own temper. The child only wants attention; it does not matter if the attention is negative or positive.
  3. Let the child feel in command of some things. Allow the child to make small choices, for example do you want cereal or milk or do you want to play or watch cartoon.
  4. Let the child know the consequences of not getting over the temper tantrum. You could mete out a mild punishment like – you will go to your room and stay there till you know how to behave better or you will get no dessert today for behaving like this.
  5. Follow through with the punishment for the child to understand that you mean business.
[edit]

Do’s

  • When the temper tantrum is about wanting something that is an absolute no-no, then you might try to distract the child by offering something else. A toddler generally has a very short attention span and is bound to forget what the whole hue and cry was about.
[edit]

Don’ts

  • Don’t give in to the temper tantrum, if you do it once it will set a precedent. Instead, ignore the tantrum, maybe leave the room for a few seconds to allow the child to come back to normal self (don’t leave the child alone for too long).
  • Don’t try to reason with the child in the middle of the temper tantrum. The child is in no condition to listen to you at that moment.
Retrieved from "https://www.articleworld.org:80/index.php/How_to_cope_with_a_toddler%E2%80%99s_temper_tantrum"