Tantrums at 8-months-old?? -

Tantrums at 8-months-old??

So it seems to me that my beautiful almost 8-month-old daughter is throwing tantrums already, and I'm not exactly sure how to deal with them, her being a baby obviously punishment has no purpose or meaning.

These "tantrums" occur when I take something from her that she isn't supposed to have, or on some days when she refuses to take a nap. If she is reaching for something she isnt aloud to have, like a coffee cup, or a plastic bag, things that she OBVIOUSLY should not have, I try to remove her from the situation, and distract her. But she will begin to kick and scream and push away from me and fight me, and this just continues and turns into a complete meltdown for about an hour, sometimes more. Today at one specific meltdown she began waving her hands angrily at my face. I don't know how to calm her down, nothing seems to work. I feel honestly like she is far to young to be doing this, am I nuts? I'm worried about what this could progress to, I understand that there really is no reasoning with babies, they simply can't understand the idea. But how do I deal with these? What do I do? What is the right thing to do? Do I put her in her crib until she calms down, or do I hold her through her kicking and thrashing until she calms down? Neither has seemed to really work better than the other....

These happen often every day, and they are SOOO exhausting, I feel mentally, and physically drained once she finally calms down and is ready to be herself again. Can anyone help me?

Written by April

Posted on 06/15/2008

See all posts by April

Answers:

hi my son did the excat same thing at that age and some of things I did was put him down and walk away when he threw his fits bc it was getting to the point where he was making my nose bleed. I wanted him to know that he didn't make the rules I did and I wasn't going listen if he was going to scream and hit. another thing I did was put him in his high chair and faced it towards the wall until he calmed down. I hope my advice helps you! good luck!

posted by nadya on 06/15/2008

It's nice to know that it wasn't just happening to me. My daughter just recently started doing the same exact thing and I didn't know what to do!! It's so hard to do, but you have to keep your ground. Otherwise, she'll know how to manipulate you. They are so smart for being so little!! Distraction is the best method. Also, try to keep things that you know she shouldn't have out of her sight so she never even sees them to want them. My daughter just turned 1 and she's getting even more demanding!! Good luck!

posted by Jena on 06/16/2008

WOW. It is goo to know that i am not alone here. My on id 7 months old and just recently started with the tantrums. Right now its when i take something away or when i leave the room. He just wants me to hld him. But i refuse to hold him all the time. i can't. i don't know what to do about it. I have just been ignoring him. I don't want to reward bad behavior. after bout 10 - 15 min i will go back to him and give him his passifyer. Most of the time he has tired himself out and will fall asleep. But i am afraid that it is going to get worse as time goes on.

posted by Brenda on 09/30/2008

I do the same thing Jena does. My 10 month old always finds something "not allowed" - I know that when it's too quiet, it's not good :) so I take it away, I say "no" and walk to another room and call him from there, he's excited about walking now, so usually it works and by the time he comes to me he forgets the other "toy"

posted by Justyna on 10/02/2008

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