Shrieking

[Libra]

Advice please! DS2, who is now 13 months, has developed the habit of shrieking to attract attention, get more food, be put down, be picked up, etc, etc. It is a particularly horrid, high-pitched shriek, which can go right through you. DS1 never did this, so we are a bit confused about how to deal with it. DH insists that his tinnitus (sp?) has started up again because of it, and now can not even stand to be in the same room as the shrieker. I know a consistent approach is needed, and DH wants us to simply put him in another room wheenever he shrieks, but I have to admit that this really upsets me. He just screams and cries, and I'm not convinced that he is old enough to understand why this is happening. Help!

[Galaxy]

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[CountessDracula]

Don't worry you two - my dd is now 17 months and started shrieking and making the most irritating sort of uh-huh noise (said in a whiney way) when she was about 13/14 months. It was like owning a bad-tempered crow for a while!

She has now grown out of it - I think it was frustration at not being able to communicate, now she can talk quite a bit she doesn't do it except if she is trying to say something to me and I don't understand.

I had a friend staying who had a 13 month old at the weekend (he didn't have her with him) and he said that she is exactly the same, shrieks and screeches all the time and it drives him up the wall too!


HTH

[AussieSim]

My DS is doing it too - aged 12mths, I just thought it was experimentation with the different noises he can make and I don't make a fuss of it. I figured he will move onto a different noise soon (won't he?). I wouldn't punish them for it - seems too young to me to understand about punishment (isn't it?)

[newbymum]

My 6 month old screams all the time!HELP! At first I thought it was a new siund that she had lernt that she coulddo but now it's all the time for example: When we're playing with her toys she screams when she's got it, so I give her another one but she does the same?
or if I put her down on her activity mat/in her highchair?
Please help I feel like I've got a screaming baby permanatly glued to my hip!

[celandine]

newbymum, my 7 month old also shrieks a lot, usually when he's excited and his whole body stiffens with excitement, arms waving. He used to make lots of chatty noises but now all he seems to do is shriek. When he does it I do tend to make some noises back to him as I'm just pleased he's making some attempts at sound. I'm hoping it's just a phase and that he'll move back onto nicer sounds soon.

I don't know why he does it but the thought has crossed my mind that he's copying my constant singing...

[celandine]

sorry, as for advice, I'd say that it sounds like she's just excited and it's her (hopefully temporary) way of expressing it.

[newbymum]

Thanks for the advice I hope it is just a phase that she's going through!! Her babbles and gurgles were so much more plesant! I was worried that they might off been tantrums to show me that she didnt want to do what ever she was doing, I never thought it could be something else, I thought it was me doing something wrong. I know she's six months old but I still sometimes feel like I dont know what I am doing.

[motherinferior]

What reassurance! Dd2 is a bellower. Frequently. Oooh, she's normal

[HiddenSpirit]

DS2 is 26 months and still shrieks and screams to get attention

He has only started saying a few words though so I'm hoping by the time his vocabulary is plentiful this will stop fingers crossed