Hi everyone,

Well my son is 2 and some, He turns 3 this march and in the last 2 months has been going through some really weird habits I guess you'd call them, Out of nowhere when he gets angry or upset or something doesn't go his way he starts screaming and I mean reeeeaaallllyyy screaming as if he is getting beaten I'm sure the neighbours can hear him, I won't lie if he does something naughty I do smack his hand but that is about it and he has started lashing out too hitting me, dad, or koko when things don't go right. I don't understand where this behaviour has come from ( Nothing against parents who don't smack there kids but I used to get smacked and I turned out ok, a big difference between smacking and beating your child) it's mainly the screaming that I am lost too do I ignore him I do put him in his room for time out which involves closing the door until he calms down or is this too harsh??

Anyway advice would be great

my DD didnt go through this to badly tho she has hit me from time to time. my DS however is almost 2 and is going through a whopper tanty stage, screaming bloody murder, kicking, throwing himself around, hitting himself and others, throwing things etc etc...great fun

we manage it with a 'naughty wall' i give him a stern NO!, then another No! and a smack on the nappy with a warning about the wall, if he still goes on ill pick him up and plop him on the wall. then i ignore him completely, if he gets up i say nothing, make no eye contact and sit him back down..and there he stays until he calms down a bit. then i give him a chance to have a cuddle while he finally calms and tell him yelling like that is a no no and not to do it again..then we do something fun and move on.

we do that EVERY time and the time it takes for him to get over it has shortened a heap, from 30mins to about 5-10mins. it happens about 3 times a day.

in short id try to say no a few times then give a simple time out, dont close the door to his room, i dont think that is appropriate for a child so young plus if you put the time out somewhere you can see him then you can stay in control the whole time. and keep calm yourself, dont let him get a big reaction from you..hell get bored with his challenges and hopefully the behaviour will eventually stop. xx its sooooo frustrating

i would use time out method. hitting in young children encourages them to hit. time out if used correctly with confidence and stern voice works. we have been in a resturant, and found a corner for my nearly three year old to sit in. we then got comments from onlookers how well done we handled the situation.
every child is different, but if you don't try and change it now, it can make life a lot harder later on.
also the one main important thing to do is, encourage and reward the positive behaviuor, then the negative starts to decrease.
good luck