Tantrum advice

[Cookiemg]

Hi

My 16 month old has started having meltdowns when she sees me talking to other people or when she has to share me with others. She started crying loudly the other day in a public place so I removed her to a quiet corner of the room so that others could hear themselves talk, I sat next to her ignoring her as I feel as though I need to gain some control and not reward her in these situation with any kind of attention. She worked herself into such a state that I had to intervene and try to get her to calm down.

How do I carry telling her that this behaviour is unacceptable and not getting involved when she's getting herself so het up?

16 months is very little to expect her to understand that she is not the center of your world.

I think you're expecting way too much of her right now. Keep social visits brief if you cant include her at the same time as chatting to friends ....... it will get better but not for a good while yet.

Terrible twos does start at about this age.

If she learns very early on that you will never ever give in to a tantrum, you won't get many more. If you give in just once, for an easy life, then it's always worth her while trying you out

It's hard though to watch them doing it, especially in public. I found the breathing/relaxation exercises they teach you for labour helped me to kind of withdraw myself from it. No use at all in labour, but great for keeping calm when all hell lets lose in Tescos

Thanks, my health visitor said that i do need to start drawing boundaries now or it will become more difficult as she gets older, she said that she encouraged a mother to ignore a tantrumming toddler for 20 mins and the mother returned saying that she felt as though she had a different child in a good sense. To be honest I'm so so all over the place with the notion that I'm being too hard or too soft, this has been developing for the past couple of months and I have tried both hard and soft approaches and neither has made either of us feel any better.

I am a person who needs to feel as though I have some sense of control but I obviously don't want to be cruel to DD.