ear piercing screams from my 20 month old son

[suzieavery]

My 20 month old son has recently started making ear piercing screams both indoors and outdoors, basically anytime and anywhere for no particular reason. Ignoring him does not seem to be helping... is there anything else i can do?
I get severe headaches from all the screaming, not to mention complaints from neighbours and nasty comments from strangers.
What do i do?

All of my children have done this in supermarket trollies so I sympathise. Its the one area where I found ignoring did not help.

The only thing that did help was to do the whole get down to their level put on the serious face and voice and tell them no.
Mummy does not like it. It hurts mummys ears. Ultimatley naughty step if it continued. The phrase "we do not scream and shout in shops" Is rather well ground into my childrens heads

And the fact that the naughty step is anywhere mummy says it is

And yes I do naughty step my children well before 20 months. If you haven't used it before and want to now then don't just "do it" go on the website and check how to do it properly. google supernanny / naughty step...

Good luck,

One of mine did this. The only consolation I can offer you is that it was a very short phase, 2-3 weeks?

Ignore if you possibly can.

Oh, ignore neighbours and nasty strangers, as well as your screaming DS, I should add!

Thanks... i'll give the naughty step a whirl.
let's hope it is indeed a short phase...