Help! how do we deal with tantrums from 14mo??

[questions2008]

hiya!

i was not expecting to be dealing with this sort of behaviour so soon, but my PFB 14mo boy has almost overnight started throwing tantrums. it started with cute shakes of his head 'no' which he learnt wuickly after nodding his head 'yes', and we all went awwww so funny!

but no its not funny anymore! if we say no to him he starts screaming and sometimes throws himself on the floor and shakes his head.

so how best to deal with this so that we get a grip on it early on? at the moment we stay firm and repeat no and then try to distract him with something else. which doesn't always work.

also at what age will the naughty step be effective?

Am in the midst of this with one twin (15 month - thankfully his brother, who was "evil twin" as a baby is being angelic). We just ignore, step a bit away (part of the problem is him throwing a tantrum on me), and start playing with something wildly exciting. At the moment he seems easily distracted - I expect his ability to stick with it will develop

Though yesterday I ignored what I thought was a tantrum. Red mark on head quickly turned to bump - think that one might have really needed a hug

i'm trying to get my head around this too. i'm reading toddler taming which has lots of sensible advice but really stuff you'd work out in any case.

we go with

• be firm - what mummy says goes. once he's been man handled into the buggy we move at speed and that usually is enough to distract him
• distract distract distract!!!
• have clear boundaries - ds loves playing with adult stuff like computers in library. dh learnt the hard way to just say no to start with rather than letting him play then removing him when he gets too lively.
• when he kicks off take ds somewhere quiet to calm down and cuddle.
• just move on - using that 'i'm calm but not really' voice us mummies are perfecting.

oh and don't laugh. i had my parents to stay this weekend and they laughed at ds' tantrums. he did not appreciate that! (yes he is funny but you can't let him know you think his anger is unjustified)

good luck and keep

thanks for your replies, its good to know that there isn't something i'm missing...i think i will buy that toddler taming book though for the insights!