How would you handle this tantrum?

[Anonymous]

2.5 year old DS seems to have entered a hitting and bad tantrum stage (coinciding with dropping naps so not surprising I guess). He’s throwing really bad tantrums that I don’t know how to handle. He’ll start hitting and throwing things and trying to knock things down - generally doing things that are not safe. I can’t leave him be to wait out the tantrum because he will hurt himself or break something. But since everything he’s doing during the tantrum requires a no from me, he is getting even more upset and the tantrums escalate. What would you do to try to calm him and how do I stop the destructive behavior short of physically restraining him, which is what I’m ending up having to do? That does seem to work eventually to calm him but I’m getting hit in the process and he’s strong so physically restraining him can be difficult. If I do just sit and wait for him to calm down he does not.

[Anonymous]

Move him to a safe room where he can't serious injure himself or break anything valuable (his room? Adjust to suit this purpose?) and then once he calms down, he's got to clean up.

But he's telling you, loud and clear, that he is NOT ready to drop his nap, as most 2.5 year olds are not. There's a sleep regression around this age, but don't drop the naps! Put him in the crib every day with the lights out for an hour at an appropriate nap time. If he screams through it for a couple weeks, he screams through it, but hold firm. He'll go back to sleeping.

[Anonymous]

Sleep deprivation sucks. Pretty much impossible for a sleep deprived 2 year old to cope during the day and regulate once they meltdown.

[Anonymous]

He’s getting about 12.5 hours of sleep overnight now. Was getting about 12 before but I could get him to nap 1.5-2.5 hours per day. I rocked him to sleep and stayed with him but he is refusing now. He won’t let me rock him. After about 5 minutes he starts wailing and pulling and pushing to get away from me. I can barely hold him. So I’m not sure how to get him to nap again, especially because he’s gotten out of it before now. He’s never napped just in his crib so I don’t think he’s about to start.

[Anonymous]

My kids both dropped nap ar 18 mo. I put them to bed at 6p to ensure they got enough sleep and they were the best night sleepers ever. They hardly ever woke up. Not saying they never had tantrums, but theirs were very manageable. I would just ignore the tantrum and pick up where we left off when they were done, usually less than 10 min. Also, make sure he's had enough to eat. Food and sleep are mood controllers in my house - even for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids both dropped nap ar 18 mo. I put them to bed at 6p to ensure they got enough sleep and they were the best night sleepers ever. They hardly ever woke up. Not saying they never had tantrums, but theirs were very manageable. I would just ignore the tantrum and pick up where we left off when they were done, usually less than 10 min. Also, make sure he's had enough to eat. Food and sleep are mood controllers in my house - even for me.

He’s also eating terribly right now. I’m at a loss.

[Anonymous]

Put him in a safe room and let him scream, kick until he's exhausted. Once he knows that throwing fits won't get him what he wants, he won't do it again.

[Anonymous]

Teach to clean up, old kid needs to learn better manners