My Toddler Loves to SCREAM!!

[sherwes]

My toddler (19 months) just loves to scream when he is happy or excited (which is most of the time). He has a very loud, high pitched scream which everyone comments on - even our friends who have very spirited toddlers themselves. He really is far and away the loudest happy screamer I have heard.

Now, the problem is that we are going on a series of long flights in about 2 weeks. My son enjoys being on a plane and usually shows his enjoyment by screaming at a very high pitch!! I don't know how to stop this behaviour and I am just dreading the flights.

As I said, he screams when happy rather than having a tantrum and I don't want to punish him for being a spirited little fellow. However, I do want to teach him that there are appropriate ways to show your happiness. I know that at his age the consequences need to be immediate so there's no point in my saying "lower your voice or you can only have one story before bed tonight". I have tried a mini time out in his bedroom but he actually liked being in his bedroom alone briefly with no adults watching him...

Suggestions please, please, please...

 

[Neha]

Well our son also screams especially when he is happy and on flights also. We were lucky on our last long haul flights he slept nearly 10 hours but if does scream we take him in our arms and hold him straight and show him other people who are sleeping or looking at him and tell him that it is not polite to scream he did 1-2 times more and then he stopped

Best of luck

 

[thanka2]

Our son has recently started the high-pitched screaming too. He is now about 20-months-old. The first time he did it we told him "No" even though he was doing it not as a tantrum but because he was being happy. We simply told him "no" and told him "gentle" (he is also super spirited so we've been using the word "gentle" almost his entire life to help him understand that he can't be too aggressive with his actions--when he gets excited he will grab and hit--not to be mean but just because he's happy). When we tell him "no" he stops in his tracks and stops the screaming. He just started the screaming a few weeks ago and so far as long as we tell him "no" he stops because with us the word "no" means business. I don't know if this type of approach will work for you or not. Best of luck.

 

[sherwes]

thanka2, your son and mine sound like they have similar personalities! I have tried saying "no", "gentle" etc but, although he is generally obedient, it doesn't seem to work in this instance. I actually think he likes the attention he gets when he screams. I am now trying to two pronged approach - firstly, I am giving him a lot of praise and attention when he DOESN'T scream (i.e. "mummy is so happy that you are being gentle and quiet today") and ignoring him when he does scream. I'll see how it goes.