one hour tantrum for a two year old??

[melander]

Last night we had one hour of full-on floor hitting, red faced, tears and screams of "NO". DS is two and was gently woken after a nap to go home from Nana's place.

I did all the normal things - offering distraction, giving space (but not abandoning), ignoring, supporting and did myself proud by not getting upset too.

We resolved it in the end with a trip to the doctor who helpfully told us that his ears are full of wax so that there is no way of knowing whether there is an infection underneath.

Any other ideas about this sort of thing - and is an hour a ridiculous amount of time in a usually feisty but managable 25 month old?????

although rare and only when very tired (eg having being woken up which my ds doesnt cope well with) we have had tantrums of 2 + hours so an hour is not out of the ordinary. We do all the things you mention though I don't generally try to distract him too much, I let him go for it unless he is hurting someone or something and just reassure him "When you have calmed down, I am here if you need a cuddle" "You are really cross about being woken up, let me know when you have shouted all the cross feeling out" all that palavar. He does calm down eventually. I can sometimes stop one before it begins with food eg. if I know i have to wake him up I make sure there is a snack ready, it is sometimes what he needs, and sometimes not.

DS is a sulker rather than a tantrummer. He could sulk for a couple of hours after a nap cut short. We found it helped to tell him when putting him to bed that if he slept a long time we would be forced to wake him up in order to go out and then remind him why when waking him. He would then be more excited then pissed off upon waking. Of course, you have to make it sound like fun. It doesn't work if you are waking them to take them to the doctors for a vaccination!

Thanks - they are both really good suggestions. It happened again last night - he screamed all the way home from creche and then some (only this time he HADN'T been woken up). All up maybe 45-50 minutes this time. We got some panadol (paracetmol) into him as soon as we got home and tonight we'll have him dosed up before. He did tell me this morning that his "Ears are dore" so i think there could be something lurking behind all the wax.

I really like the idea of "When you have shouted all the bad feelings out, come and see me for a cuddle". My parents used to try and jolly me out of moods and I HATED it, so I have been trying to support him but still give value to his frustration and anger - and not get angry and upset myself. NOT easy.

Also, do like the idea of telling him if we may have to wake him up, although he isn't a good sleeper and that may encourage him to fight sleep. I'll definitely try it and have it in my Mum's toolbox.

Thanks again,

M

Okay now it's getting worse - I left DH battling DS over getting dressed this morning. DS had stripped twice since we got him dressed the first time all in a rage.
His nappy was completely saturated in 15 minutes - is this something I should be concerned about or is lots of wee a symptom of the RAGE, do you think???

onset of the terrible twos?