temper! temper!

[jaspersslave]

please help me

what age do babies start having temper tantrums

as im sure my nearly 7 month old ds is! he really go's into one when he cant get want he wants screaming (not crying)and kicking and hitting me the starts crying and pushing my hands away then they aint nothing u can do with him till u either give in or find something more amusing.

is this normal, please i need some reasurence plus what can i do when it happens

i have carpel tunnel syndrome in my wrist so struggle to handle him physically when he has an outburst

apart from this he is a lovely content placid baby who never stops smiling

[Twiglett]

normal normal normal

he's beginning to realise he isn't 'part of you' and has his own desires which he gets really frustrated when you do other things

just ride it out he'll calm down in a month or so (just in time for separation anxiety no doubt)

(bet he's squirming when you try to change his nappy too)

[fatmomma]

My ds went through a stage of doing this at a similar age and all I could do was put him on the floor and leave hime to it - they usually blew over in less than a minute. I think it was frustration because he was a late crawler, once he could move with confidence they stopped.

ds is coming up to his 2nd birthday now and the tantrums are definately different and usually triggered by me stopping him doing something. He also smacks and nothing I can say deters him, I find it is only a problem if I am unable to put him down and ignore him. When I am changing his nappy for example!

I find watching Supper Nanny or something similar is very soothing - it makes you realise things could be a lot worse .

[bobbybob]

It's not temper - he's just exploring the effect that he has on you. He can't tell you what he wants and is frustrated.

It is entirely normal. Please don't think of it as "giving in" to him, he's not bad for wanting things to be different.

You can say "it hurts mummy when you do that, lie still please" and then if by coincidence he does heap the praise on. Give him a name for his emotion. "You feel sad because we've come away from the ducks?"

I was often caught saying to my 6-12 month old son "I can't understand you when you cry, you will have to calm down and point to what you would like." People looked at me like I was crazy, but my view was that he was trying to communicate and I was explaining to him that he could improve his communication and possibly get whatever it was he wanted if he quit the noisy stuff.