Is Your 15 Month Old Having Temper Tantrums? Three tips to help you survive toddler temper tantrums.
You probably thought you had at least five or more months left before the terrible two’s hit, right? Unfortunately, these behaviors tend to start between 15 and 18 months. It is definitely a tough time for both parents and child. I learned one of my favorite coping methods when studying The Love and Logic parenting philosophy. When problems arise at this age try one of these three things: remove the parent, the object, or the child from the situation. This has been a HUGE help in our household. Sometimes it’s an object that is causing the issue, sometimes one child, and sometimes, though we hate to admit it, it’s the parent. There have been times that Eric has had to step in and point out that I was the one having the tantrum and maybe I just needed a minute to decompress. LOL. The first couple of times it was very hard to hear that, but sometimes it’s true!
Check out these other great tips for stopping your kids from throwing fits!
Take a Deep Breath
“When You Feel So Mad That You Want To Roar. Take a deep breath and count to 4.” Thank you Daniel Tiger! We had actually figured this out before watching Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, but it helped to add a fun song to it! Sometimes, you have to squat down to their level and remind them to take a breath. Sometimes it helps for the parents to do it as well. 🙂
Distract, Distract, Distract!
You are going to have to channel your inner crazy lady preschool teacher to make this work. These are never teaching moments so other than a very short explanation of what you expect of them, you really just need to distract them.
Use the 4 P’s: Pictures, Puzzles, Painting, Playdoh – Kids find themselves fascinating! Get some photo albums out and look through them together. Puzzles are great for distracting kids. My boys still love it when I get down on the floor with them and give them my attention. Or if you have an iPhone, just look through your photo stream or download some puzzle apps. Noah loved the Thomas and Friends and Minnie Mouse puzzle apps. And if you have to pull out the big guns, the promise of painting OR Playdoh are amazing ways to stop tantrums.
Check out 4 things I learned this year that made me a better mom!
Limit Options and Minimize Decisions
Toddlers get confused and frustrated really easy. If you allow them to make decisions for themselves not only will they be eat candy for breakfast and wearing a swimsuit to school, but they will get frustrated and throw tantrums. Questions like “What would you like for breakfast?” generally end in disaster. If you must let them decide offer them only two choices.
What have you found works with your toddler? Hopefully these tips will help with your 15 month old temper tantrums. I definitely have been using these techniques in the classroom lately!!
**As always, I am just a mom sharing things that have worked for me or my friends and family, or maybe something I have read about. I am NOT a perfect mom, and if anybody says they are, they are big fat liars. We are all just trying to make it through our children’s formative years without requiring them to have “too much” therapy as adults. 😉
