Please help with 2half yr old ... screaming... at the end of my tether.

[kezykris]

My little man is causing the whole household havoc. He constantly screams top of his lungs off. This happens throughout the day. My poor little sister can just say hello to him & he screams. It is loud enough that you can hear him walking up the pathway to our house when the windows are shut!

We have tried the naughty step & he will sit there & be quiet but this does not deter him from doing this again 5 minutes later. Even the old school tap on the hand etc have been tried, but nothing works...

My mum has my little boy while I'm at work & his behaviour is exactly the same.

We are all struggling with this & it has been going on for a couple of months now.

ANy suggestions to try would be massively appreciated.

What kind of screaming is it? Do you mean he is shouting when he's talking, of screaming/shrieking when he's running about? Or screaming/crying? Or just screaming for a reaction?

How I would tackle it is very different depending on the above ....

Yes agree with PP what sort of screaming is it? My DD who is the same age is very into yelling "muuuuuuum" in screechy tones ATM and that is jarring and makes me twitch. I'm just very calmly saying "talk quietly please" in a normal voice and hoping this phase will pass. I think sometimes with things like this not fuelling it and ignoring as much as possible causes them to get bored and try something else. If they get a reaction out of you they will keep doing it.

I also find DD does the screechy thing less if we've been out and about and done lots of high energy activities where the focus is on me and her and not so much baby DS. Could you try something similar and see if it makes a difference? Sometimes we feel like we spend all our time with them but we aren't actually doing "things with them" iykwim?

Have you had his hearing tested?
Read him some books with different levels of noise - What the ladybird heard is a good one - or when you read him books or sing songs try to show him what a quiet voice is, and what the difference is between a quiet voice and a loud voice. I'm not sure if he's old enough but you could try to have a special 'secret code word', it can be anything really, 'sausage' or 'spaceship' or whatever, that only you and him and gran knows and when you say it he has to use his quiet voice, or his little voice. Try to make it a game. It might work, or he might be a bit too young. It's worth a try anyway.

You could use books with animals such as 'The Very Busy Spider' and use loud voices for loud animals and quiet voices for the spider.

Hi all, thanks for this. I will definitely try the books. is proper screaming your lungs off screeching. ..there doesn't seem to be a pattern to it. We can go out & about & be busy or be at home & its always the same.

If he wants his own way, & doesn't get it, he screams ... (but this in itself is kind of normal for the age) but even when people he sees every day simply say hello, he screams. Its not shouting a word loud...but like he's in a constant rage.

He can communicate ok & is at the stage where you can recognise 4/5 words out of his sentence. He knows he shouldn't scream as when he's being good will tell me its quiet time, no screaming mummy.

My mum looks after him while I work & the behaviour is getting so bad I fear she may not wish to carry on for much longer. He can be like this for literally half the day.

I would like to add that he's had an awful 7 months & been in/out to hospital after developing blood clots on his brain. Very scary & all is ok now but it seems to have drastically affected him & his behaviour. We have been having to inject him twice daily & he has had constant poking/proding about. I wonder if all this going on has added to his frustration & anger because he really doesn't understand whats going on.