My son will be 4 years old in June and he still throws fits and tantrums. I have tried sending him to his room,time out,throwing his toys away,eliminating snacks,ignoring it, and even a system called 1,2,3 magic. Nothing seems to help. When he throws his fits he hits kicks screams and throws things.I have even started watching nanny 911 to learn some new techniques on handling the situations. Please help me.
i don't know what to do, either. My son just started (this week) to send himself to bed when he gets angry with me - "i'm going to bed!!!" he says. and i say "fine!!! just do that!!!" it gets him to settle down and come down later. I used to have to argue with him to go up to his room when he was angry, but i sorta like this better :) lol
good luck - i am hoping it's just a phase...
bgersper
Hi T.,
I had the same problem with my 21/2 yr daughter. I would just put her in her bed and shut the door. I did this enough times and she finally got the message.
I had thought that I had done everything I could. I try to talk with her and other things. This is the only thing that worked. I was really rough at first. She would scream and cry and bang on wall and beat on her bed. She started all the fits early on. I knew if i didn't get a handle on it now she would only get worse.
She stills throws fits now and then, but nothing like she did. She just knows that she won't get what she wants when she misbehaves.
Nanny 911 really does have some good ideas and i have used some and still do.
Good luck to you.
T., I completly understand your delima. My four year old is not the only child I have that has gone through it and still does it. One important thing I have learned is that sometimes mine throw them because I am not understanding what they are trying to communicate with me. Other times for attention or because they didn't get their way. With my oldest daughter I put her in her room, I told her that when the baby has a fit she goes to bed and if she is going to ack like a baby, she was going to go to bed also. However, I had to pull her bed away from the wall (thankfully it was a toddler bed) becasue she kicked so much she actually but a hole in the wall. I just want you to be careful about that one. I do the time outs which I personally like the best becuase I can do it in the store or in the car (I just pull off of the road and tell them I am not going anywhere except home if it doesn't stop). And most of my children know that if I slam on the breaks someone is in trouble and now just hitting the breaks harder than normal ends what is going on in the back. Best of Luck!
T.,
I recommend 1-2-3 magic. If you haven't read the book, please do so - it tells you how to handle pretty much all situations. We are using it on our 3 year old - but I haven't gotten my husband on board yet - so it is not working as well as I'd like - but I definitely see an improvement. Keep at it! Good Luck!
Hello T.,, I am also a 24 yr old single mom in Chardon, & know what your going through.. What works for me is ignoring him.. I have learned that when I get mad & we start to argue back & forth it just gets worse. I ignore him, let him yell, kick, what ever (within reason) once he starts to clam down, I get down on his level & calmly talk to him about the problem,, ie. "you know that you have to eat diner before you get a snack,, calm down & lets go eat diner" Something like that.. just calm.. It works! His fits usually never last longer then 5 min. I just continue doing what I'm doing walking around him.. I hope that helps, it what works for me.. Feel Free to message me anytime.
My son will be 4 in April and when he gets mad and starts to throw a fit we put him in the corner and he has to stand there for 5 minutes(we use a the microwave timer). Once the time is up we tell him he can come out of the corner when he's ready to apologize for yelling and screaming. While he's in the corner we ignore him unless he tries to come out(then's he's put back with the timer reset). He will usually grumble/yell for the 1st minute he's in the corner then he quiets down and waits. Making him apologize for his bad behavior is really working too. Consistancy is the key on this...he needs to know what to expect and what the concequences of his behavior are. Good luck!!!
D.
If you have watched Nanny 911 maybe you have seen the reward systems that they use. I think that could help if time out and sending him to his room doesn't. I also wanted to say that if you send him to his room take out all the toys or it might not help as much, it may turn into a fun thing.
T.:
I had the same issues with my son. I talked to his pediatrician b/c I was about to go out of my mind! The doctor told me to let him pitch his fit, obviously making sure he's not hurting himself. But don't give him the attention that he's throwing the fit for. Once he sees that he's not having an affect on you, he'll stop!
GOOD LUCK
D.
