My 11mo has turned into a monster-tell me it's normal!!

[1Baby1Bump]

My son has started having what seems like a tantrum at everything we do.
I try and put a coat on him and he starts shaking his head and kicking his legs.
Sometimes he does it when I put him in the high chair.
I was telling him in my 'No' voice that he is being silly but it doesn't make any difference but he does obey the word 'No'.
Atm , I've switched to ignoring it completely to see if it makes any difference.
I know kids have tantrums but I didn't think they started this soon!!
Did yours? and if yes, what did you do?

bumping for you (ds not there yet thank goodness!)

Oooh yes (mine's a few weeks older and I sympathise!). What I find is that he will scream his head off and it's alarming, but a tiny bit of distraction works wonders. If I'm sure he's OK (not hurt etc.) I let him scream and then when he pauses for breath I say "where's the cat" or "look at this!" (waving interesting object) and very often he stops and totally forgets about it. Another thing we do (which DP invented) is a game that involves walking your fingers very slowly up his arm, then at the top you get faster and tickle him. He loves it and as soon as you start the "walking" (the slower the better, saying "one... two..... three....." etc) he stops screaming and stares, then starts laughing. Try developing something like this when he's not in a strop, then you can use it when he is.

Hello,
Yep my ds is into this too (he's just 1)My take on it is that they're only little and just starting to have opinions on what's done to and for them. Mine likes to 'assert himself' as we go past the swings. I think you just need to be gentle and firm with them when you need to get stuff done, put them in a buggy for example. I try to avoid saying no too much unless it's something dangerous as I don't want ds saying no back to me too often

He's too young for it to be a tantrum imo, it's not wilful disobedience, it's just not being happy at coat/whatever it is, it's normal and will pass. Distraction may well work so give him something to look at while you're getting a coat on or talk to him to distract from what you're doing.

Yes, DS1 started exactly this at 11 months. Used to have full blown tantrums, kicking, screaming, biting, head butting floors and walls. By the time he was 18 months he was like the child from hell sorry! He was having 6-10 tantrums a day each lasting anything from 5 mins to 20 mins each and anything could set him off.

BUT there is hope! By the time he reached 2.5 he was fully through it while his peers were just revving up and became a complete delight and from then on was a very calm, compliant little boy and is still fairly even tempered now (9yrs).

My only advice would be is sit tight, ride the storm but make sure you have very clear firm boundaries and stick to them and never give in to a tantrum - you will only make it worse and feed the next one.

Oh and check there is nothing medical underlying going on. We discovered that DS1 actually had a dairy intolerance that gave him stomach cramps which probably didnt help his mood.

thanks to all who have posted and bumped for me. i will give distraction a go!
x

Oh yes... they don't tell you that the terrible twos often start before one. The bright side does seem to be that, as poppiesinaline's found, early to start the tantrum stage does apparently tend to mean early to grow out of it as well (we're still right in the middle of it, so I can't swear to that from personal experience).