Anonymous wrote:And very hard- He just plunges to the floor face first. He gets bruises and then has a major tantrum. I'm not sure why he is doing this other than he must be feeling frustrated. It comes out of seemingly nowhere. How should I react when he does this? I have no had experience with this and the parents are not sure how to react either.

Give lots love and attention,I am a nanny for 27 years,lots experience,take him out,read,play this toddle is fillling boring...
And you you have to read more about kids developement.

PP here

And if the parents don't know what to do, again Speak to his pediatrician about this. What do they do by the way?

Anonymous wrote:Op here- Just to clarify, I know it is a tantrum. The issue is he is throwing himself down very hard and getting hurt. There are no warning signs either. We will be happily playing and he will suddenly plunge as hard as he can face first. How do I comfort him when he hurts himswlf without encourging that specific behavior?

did it ever occur to you to talk to his PARENTS about this and ask them what they do versus strangers on the internet? This community is good for advice for some things but when it comes to issues like this with a toddler of this age why ask here instead of you all sitting down and comparing notes of when it happens with them and you and how they handle it so everyone is on the same page. Also so they can speak with his pediatrician about it? Jeesh

and if you say that you've already done that then again why ask here? do what you all agreed upon to handle it

Op here- Just to clarify, I know it is a tantrum. The issue is he is throwing himself down very hard and getting hurt. There are no warning signs either. We will be happily playing and he will suddenly plunge as hard as he can face first. How do I comfort him when he hurts himswlf without encourging that specific behavior?

Anonymous wrote:He just wants attention. I learned this from a class I took on handling this type of behavior. Tell him to sit somewhere quiet with his favorite things and pretend to " smell flowers and blow out candles." This will teach him to practice relaxing breathing to calm down and can come to you when he is cool, calm and can be nice. Also whenever he isn't upset, have talks with him about verbalizing his feelings. It's important not to get upset or put him on time out because that makes him get more upset. It's the wrong way of giving him attention.

I'm sorry, but what in the world? Toddlers aren't good at abstract thinking, and the reason they tantrums is because they can't deal with their emotions/thoughts and don't have the tools yet to express that they are overwhelmed. Your suggestions give the tantrum attention, when op needs to ignore the tantrum.

Op, I agree with the pp who said this is normal behavior. Learn to ignore it quickly, and remind the parents that any attention given during the tantrum will reinforce that tantrum in gets results.

He just wants attention. I learned this from a class I took on handling this type of behavior. Tell him to sit somewhere quiet with his favorite things and pretend to " smell flowers and blow out candles." This will teach him to practice relaxing breathing to calm down and can come to you when he is cool, calm and can be nice. Also whenever he isn't upset, have talks with him about verbalizing his feelings. It's important not to get upset or put him on time out because that makes him get more upset. It's the wrong way of giving him attention.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And very hard- He just plunges to the floor face first. He gets bruises and then has a major tantrum. I'm not sure why he is doing this other than he must be feeling frustrated. It comes out of seemingly nowhere. How should I react when he does this? I have no had experience with this and the parents are not sure how to react either.

my kid did this, my nephew did this, our friends' kids did this.

all very normal toddler behavior. eventually, teach them to "use their words". meanwhile, protect the head!

Protect the head? What should she do, hold them safely or put her hand out waiting while they do it? No way! If they bump their head on the floor while acting out it will just make them stop their shenanigans. You ignore it completely.

It's a tantrum. Just ignore it. But better advice? Find a new job working with newborns/infants. You're going to be in for a rough time if you can't recognize a tantrum. And on the way out, give the parents a parenting book.

Just reiterating that one can not ever ever give in to a tantrum, NOT even a single time.

That is just asking for tantrums to become daily (if not more) occurrences.

Anonymous wrote:And very hard- He just plunges to the floor face first. He gets bruises and then has a major tantrum. I'm not sure why he is doing this other than he must be feeling frustrated. It comes out of seemingly nowhere. How should I react when he does this? I have no had experience with this and the parents are not sure how to react either.

my kid did this, my nephew did this, our friends' kids did this.

all very normal toddler behavior. eventually, teach them to "use their words". meanwhile, protect the head!

Anonymous wrote:That's what kids do. Pick him up and put him somewhere safe, like a bean bag chair and let him have his fit.

This is wrong don't pick him up, ignore his tantrums but watch what he is doing all the time so he is safe. Don't talk to me him ,give him space once he is done talk to him about why he was so upset, encourage him to use words.

That's called a tantrum. Have you never cared for a toddler before? I find it surprising that I nanny has not seen this behavior with other kids.

There is actually solid research on how to handle tantrums. The research says that tantrums have a natural flow with a child expends all of their negative emotions up to a certain peak, then gradually calms down until they're able to interact again. If you interfere before they are done with The tantrum, then the process restarts and they will be tantruming for longer. So the science says that the best thing to do is to ignore. Walk away and give them space to feel how they feel and let them come around to you.

I have found that ignoring tantrums works the best. The child, in that state, cannot hear you and attention only feeds the tantrum. Just go about your business, pretending that it isn't happening.

While many experts disagree with how to handle tantrums, they all agree on one point: tantrums cannot work. A tantrum should never, ever give the child what he/she wanted.

That's what kids do. Pick him up and put him somewhere safe, like a bean bag chair and let him have his fit.

And very hard- He just plunges to the floor face first. He gets bruises and then has a major tantrum. I'm not sure why he is doing this other than he must be feeling frustrated. It comes out of seemingly nowhere. How should I react when he does this? I have no had experience with this and the parents are not sure how to react either.