Tantrums Start By 18 Months. Here's How To Get Ready.

Your parenting style benefits from toddler tantrum tips, the more the better. At 18 months, your child should start having tantrums. That's because they're learning to cope with new emotions. Staying calm is the best way to help them -- and yourself.
Parenting Styles | Toddler Tantrums | Tantrums at 18 Months
KidsInTheHouse the Ultimate Parenting Resource
Kids in the House Tour

Tantrums Start By 18 Months. Here's How To Get Ready.

Comment
81
Like
81
Transcription: 
In the second year of life, and certainly b 18 months of age, most toddlers start having tantrums. And these are really upsetting for everybody. And the main reason they're upsetting for parents is because there really is very little you can do to stop them, except to be sure the baby is safe, and then to get out of the way to let the child handle them himself or herself. If you try to get involved and to talk the child out of it or through it, you'll see the baby will usually just get more and more worked up. But instead if you can just try to take your own time out and stay calm and be with the child in a way that really says to the child, "I know it's hard for you right now, but I know you can get yourself through this," then they will. And tantrums are really an opportunity for young children to begin to learn how to soothe themselves when they're upset or distressed and that's a really important skill that they'll need for the rest of their lives.

Your parenting style benefits from toddler tantrum tips, the more the better. At 18 months, your child should start having tantrums. That's because they're learning to cope with new emotions. Staying calm is the best way to help them -- and yourself.

Transcript

Expert Bio

More from Expert

Joshua Sparrow, MD

Child Psychiatrist & Author brazeltontouchpoints.org

A child psychiatrist, Dr. Sparrow’s care in the 1990s for children hospitalized for severe psychiatric disturbances, often associated with physical and sexual abuse, and for developmental delays aggravated by social and economic deprivation, prompted his interest in community-based prevention and health promotion. At the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, his work focuses on cultural adaptations of family support programs, organizational professional development, and aligning systems of care with community strengths and priorities, and has included collaborative consultation with the Harlem Children's Zone and American Indian Early Head Start Programs, among many others. He has lectured extensively nationally and internationally on related topics and has consulted on media programming for children and parents, including PBS’s Frontlines and Discovery Kids. Co-author with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton of 8 books and the weekly New York Times Syndicated column, “Families Today,” Dr. Sparrow has also served as a contributing editor to Scholastic Services’ Parent and Child magazine. In 2006, he revised with Dr. Brazelton Touchpoints: Birth to Three, 2nd Edition and in 2010, co-edited Nurturing Children and Families: Building on the Legacy of T. B. Brazelton, a textbook on the ongoing generativeness of Brazelton’s seminal research in a wide range of fields. Dr. Sparrow has authored numerous other scholarly works, teaches and lectures nationally and internationally, and is frequently called upon for his expertise by national and international media. Prior to attending medical school, Dr. Sparrow worked for several years as a preschool teacher and journalist in New York City.

More Parenting Videos from Joshua Sparrow, MD >