Help With My 12 Month Old Son

[summer10]

Hi everyone,

The good news is, I recently became licensed in August, and am in the process of interviewing some parents! The bad news is, my 12 month old son recently started the very annoying habit of screaming! He just screamed intermittently through my interview! I would love some advice on how to curb and/or stop this behavior!

I really love all the good tips and advice that are found on this forum! So glad I found Daycare.com!!

[Michael]

Welcome, glad you could join us!

[MyAngels]

Is he screaming as in crying, or screaming as in "I just found my voice, and I'm gonna use it!" ?

screaming as in "I want your attention!!!" and yes, I just found my voice fits the bill, too. Whenever my husband & I are talking (my interview candidate & I are talking), whenever I walk away for whatever reason. I've tried to ignore it, I've tried to tell him "no screaming" everytime he screams, & I've tried timeouts. (Too many different remedies to the problem, maybe?) maybe he will just grow out of it? he does not speak any words yet, but definitely knows meanings of words.

Thanks for the welcome & responses!

[MyAngels]

Time and consistency will be your friends while trying to solve this problem. When I've run into this problem I make sure I'm not rewarding the "bad" behavior by giving it too much attention, but rewarding the "good" behavior by paying plenty of attention when the baby is happy and playing (easier said than done, I know). If it gets too bad I will set up a playpen in a quiet room and when the screaming starts I pick them up and calmly place them in the playpen until the screaming subsides, bringing them back out as soon as they are calm again. With a consistent approach it normally only takes a week or so before the little ones figure this out. Good luck!

[summer10]

Thanks so much for the feedback - yesterday I was putting him in the pnp for the timeout, and then he spit up all over the pnp mattress... But it is clean now, and I will be sure to remain consistent on this behavior! (he is such a good boy, by the way, just turned 12 mo about 3 weeks ago & poof! toddler behavior!)