Tantrums from a 17mth old DS.....am I doing the right thing?

[fordywastaylor]

My DS has mild tantrums, I say mild because I can usually distract and steer him away from the issue. My problem is when he has these hissy fits, and I am ignoring him or I try and move him away and onto something else, out the corner of my eye I see him going to hit or throw something in retaliation to being told no....is this common behaviour??? By ignoring him will this all pass, is it another phase? Once he can communicate with us more effectively do things get better???

I just posted about my DS, same age, on this thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/8/580697

He went through a phase of throwing something, hitting out, kicking in retaliation. I am as stern about this as I am about the original hissy fit as hitting out in anger etc isn't allowed in Spud's Stern Mummy World.

He 'seems' to have stopped doing it.

You know your own child best, but I'm confident that being very stern and not turning a blind eye to DS's behaviour is the way forward!

Nothing has got broken yet, and it is only small things like his dummy being fired across the room, or him swiping whatever is in his path at the time, but I am worried it will get more expensive and simply just not nice to watch and have to deal with all the time. How long was the "phase"? He is my first, and I have little experience in all this, since I moved recently to the area I haven't gained much hope from the local HV team!!!

Couple of months maybe? It's very wearing, and I feel like a cracked record 'No, we don't throw things, mummy is NOT happy with you' repeat 100 times

All these things DO pass, but this kind of behaviour I wasn't prepared to just let it go for fear it would become really entrenched and him think that it's ok to kick, throw, hit out.

As time has gone on I've got better at working out what his pressure points are and either avoiding those situations, or distracting/intervening before it escalates!

sounds like you're handling it really well.

Its just like you say, "very wearing" and I feel the bad cop all the time as hubby is at work, therefore most of the "telling off" is left to me. I can usually tell when we will experience a problem so at least I can prepare myself. Come to think of it when he goes to MIL's for the weekend she never mentions he does this, suppose she doesn't say no to him I expect!! None of my friends/rele's have had this type of behaviour from their little ones, sometimes I think I am in charge of a mini hooligan in the making!