Toddler Tantrums

Toddler Tantrums occur at least once a week in 50-80% of pre school children.
The most common cause of toddler tantrums is conflict with parents ;-

1) Over food and eating (16.7 per cent),

2) Being put in a pushchair, high chair or car seat (11.6 per cent

3) By getting changed or dressed (10.8 per cent).

There are peak times for tantrums – more tantrums occur in the late morning and early evening, when the child is probably hungry or tired.At this stage in a child’s life, what may seem weird, irrational or just plain naughty is perfectly normal. It does not help – you or the child – to get stressed about it.

Of all the challenging types of toddler behaviour –for example, getting into everything, asking endless questions or refusing point blank to get into the buggy/car seat – it’s the tantrum that gives toddlers a bad name and provides parents with the most headaches.

Coping strategies.
There are times when nothing less than a miracle will stop your child kicking off – like the moment you realise you’ve left their favourite teddy at the supermarket and it shut two hours ago. You can employ some tactics to ward off trouble.

At home
‘Toddler-proof’ your home so you don’t have to keep taking things away from your child. Look around your home and put away breakables or things children can hurt themselves on. Your house may not look as pretty, but it’s better than shouting at them all day.

Out shopping
When you have time get your toddler to help by picking out objects you want to buy. Choosing which colour of toilet roll, bubble bath or soap to buy.

Visiting
Visiting friends or family, take a goodie bag with you with toys, books, colouring pencils and chewy foods to keep your child amused, particularly when visiting elderly relatives or friends who have no children.

If you would like more information about coping strategies or parenting;-

Contact Dream-Angus.com

Breath holding in young children.

Young children who have limited language and cannot easily express their frustration in other ways, sometimes do so by breath holding. This is very alarming for the parents. The child may be crying and then stop suddenly, turn an unusual blue-grey colour, and flop back. This lasts only a few seconds but results in parental panic.

Children do and will grow out of this and as it becomes less effective it is used less. Limits must still be set and maintained but, recognising a child's frustration, and distracting them before they have the opportunity to hold their breath and scare the adult can be very effective.

This behaviour occurs in about 5% of infants and toddlers up to about age 5 -- children aged 1-3 are particularly at risk . This behaviour is usually associated with a need for attention, to express emotion or, in rare cases, to indicate an underlying medical condition. Breath holding is recognised as attention seeking behaviour which occurs when a child is extremely upset and has not learned other, more socially appropriate ways to express themselves.

Shock or surprise can also induce breath holding in very young children, exacerbated by, or as a result of accompanying crying or hyperventilating. However, most breath holding spells do not last longer than a few seconds. As soon as the child passes out, the respiratory centre in the brain kicks in and breathing returns to normal.

Breath holding can be associated with medical conditions such as seizure disorders, anemia or, rarely, cardiac disorders, and parents may want to rule out these conditions after their child's first breath holding event. At this stage children are rapidly evolving beings and medical problems can be expressed at this time.

Without a solid underlying problem resulting in breath holding, there is little treatment available. Children grow out of behavioural problems such as breath holding as they learn to express themselves in more sophisticated ways. If the breath holding is purely behavioural and parents fail to respond to these events with attention, the behaviour ceases.

When you give children lots of positive attention in other ways, it decreases the amount of time the child can use to obtain attention in a negative way. If the child is in a safe place and not going to fall off a table or chair, then you really just have to ignore it.