How do you stop the screaming?

[soozy87]

My almost 23 month old has turned into a screamer. If he is told "no" he screams. If he is bored he screams, and many other times for undetermined reasons. It is a high pitched screech. We have tried telling him to stop, whispering to him to stop, moving him to another room alone and telling him that he can rejoin us when he stops, making a big deal of good behavior, yelling at him to stop. Any suggestions on how to get him to actually stop? It is wearing on us and with a new little brother coming any day now I am worried that it is only going to get worse.

[simpsongal]

Sounds like you're doing all you can. DS isn't a screamer but when he can't reel in a tantrum, we carry him up to his crib and leave him there. Shuts it down right away.

[DarcyLongfellow]

I try to ignore it. Giving the screaming any attention just reinforces it.

Easier said than done, I know :-)

[dcn]

I would try to validate why he is screaming. "Wow! You sound mad! Do you need help," Or "I hear you are trying to tell me you are bored, please use your words. Let's go find a toy". Or "I know that makes you mad/sad/upset when I say no". Ask him to do what you want - please use you indoor voice, use your words, ask for help etc.

If it still continues then I would tell him that I will be over here when he is ready to speak nicely etc, and ignore.

Ds does this with crying and whining and we have had a little improvement recently.

[sleepyheads]

My 25 month old does this too. If he doesn't want his diaper changed, if he wants our attention, if he's mad, etc. We have been trying time outs. Giving 1 warning to stop, and then putting him in time out. When my H puts him in time out, he stops screaming. But when I do, he continues to scream. I'm trying to completely ignore it instead of time outs - I would think he would eventually get bored of not getting the attention from screaming. Good luck.

[rex]

i ignored or just said "that's loud" in a completely calm tone of voice, as if i was just stating a fact. it was a short phase for us.

[soozy87]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. It is tough to control and ignore him, especially in public places. My husband is having an especially hard time with it.