We have 3 boys. 8, 4 and 18 months.
When DS1 was younger, he went through a stage of screaming when he didn't get something he wanted, we consistantly ignored it, didn't give in to his screams and eventually he gave up the screaming and it was over with.
DS2 hit this stage about a year ago, he has speech problems and so he screamed more often for not being able to tell us things, his speech has gotten a lot better over the last 6 months, but he still screams, a very high pitch, loud, ear splitting scream. e.g. yesterday he asked for a drink of milk, so I went to get the milk out of the fridge, he screamed the place down, I asked what the matter was, he said no not milk he wanted squash, I said he didn't need to scream he could have just asked, so I got the squash, put it down on his table and he screamed again, he wanted milk not squash??? How do I deal with that? The last thing I was going to do was get him milk, but by then it's too late anyway, he's already screamed the place down twice, for things that he's asking for, that I've got.
And now DS3 has been doing the same for the last 4/5 months, between the pair of them it is sometimes seems near constant, and it is a problem. They seem to be learning it from each other.
We have always ignored the screaming, not given in etc. etc. but it doesn't seem to be getting the message home. And last night our next door neighbour came round and complained about the screaming.
I just don't know what to do about it, the only way to stop the screaming instantly is to give in to whatever they're screaming about, which obviously we don't want to do, but we can't just let it run it's course anymore, that approach isn't working, and I can't put the neighbours through it anymore.
Sorry this is long, but could really do with some advice.