Toddler's Temper Tantrums - When Is The Time To Worry & Tips to Respond

Your toddler’s tantrums at times may be sudden and even fierce. One moment you will be happily having dinner with your child at a restaurant, and the next moment your child starts crying for a silly reason like his/her straw got bent. Toddlers are more prone to throwing temper tantrums. While it may seem ok to give into your child’s demands, remember that this will become a habit. So avoid fulfilling the wishes when your child is throwing tantrums.

When You Should Worry About Toddler’s Tantrums?

While toddlers are renowned for their temper tantrums, there are some signs that needs careful consideration and at times even expert intervention. Here I am mentioning those few signs.

1. Aggressive Temper tantrums: If your child shows unnecessary aggression either towards you or his/her caregiver and tends to break toys or objects around him/her, then you need to seek help from your paediatrician
2. Self-injurious tantrums: While your toddler for the first time may harm himself or herself accidentally, it may also happen that he or she makes it a habit. If you feel that your toddler has made a habit of hurting himself or herself while throwing tantrums, then it is time to seek help
3. Frequent tantrums: If your child seldom throws tantrums then it is fine and can be easily brought under control. But if the situation worsens, it might be a sign of clinical problem, which needs medical help
4. Prolonged tantrums: A normal tantrums usually lasts for a couple of minutes, say 5 to 10 minutes. But if your child’s tantrums go on for more than that, say for about half an hour, you need to be firm and train your child towards better behaviour before it is too late and your child develops a habit out of it

How to Tame Your Toddler’s Tantrums?

Taming your child’s tantrums is important, you might not be able to stop it immediately, but you can surely bring it under control to a certain extent. Here are some ways or tips that can come handy in order to prevent your child from throwing tantrums frequently-

1. Practice prevention: Toddlers are more likely to throw tantrums when they haven’t got proper rest, which makes them cranky often. In order to avoid such outbursts, you need to make sure that your child gets enough sleep each day. A well rested child will be relaxed and hence won’t be getting cranky
2. Loosen some strings: You must have noticed that every time you shout and scream at your child for creating a mess while playing with toys, he/she throws tantrums due to irritation. This is why at times you can let go off things and allow your child to play with an ease, without worrying about the clutter and mess created. You can save the ‘No’s’ for really important issues
3. Stay calm: When your child throws tantrums, he/she might try to get you under control. Thus, you can stay calm instead of getting angry and hold your child gently. You can take your child away from the source of his/her anger so that he/she cannot hurt himself/herself or others around. Give your child a chance to recover from the outburst
4. Use distraction: Before your child’s tantrums reaches to the highest peak, you need to use some sort of distraction in order to divert your child’s mind so that he/she can forget about the issue causing the tantrum
5. Trying humour: Adding some kind of humour to the situation will help your child calm down and also distract his/her mind from the tantrum causing situation. But make sure you are not making fun of your child as it will only make him/her more angry and sad
6. Don’t give in to demands: At times to avoid embarrassment in public, parents give in to their child’s demands. But this response will only aggravate this condition as your child will use tantrums to get his/her things done. No matter what kind of place it is, you need to remain calm and not give in to your child’s demands. Make sure you are firm with your rules that will help you establish your authority in front of your child
7. Discussing issues: After your child’s tantrums come down to a level, you can ask your child what caused him/her to get in to such an outburst. Being calm and discussing the matter will help your child to stay calm as well

Is your child showing temper tantrums? Are you as a mum worried how to handle the tantrums with love, smile and patience? Do you think that you are losing patience too soon? If the answers to all these questions are yes, then worry not. Read more on how to deal with child's temper tantrums?  

Now you know when you need to put control on your child’s tantrums and what measures you can seek in order to put a full stop on the same. Do not feel guilty about controlling your child’s tantrums as you are only doing a good job towards working on your child’s behaviour.