Screeching Baby - Elgin,IL

My kids are now 12 and 14, but my suggestion would be to ignore it when you are at home. If she knows she will get your attention when she does it and thinks it is funny, then ignore it and she won't get the reaction she wants and will hopefully stop. While out in public, tell her firmly if you don't stop you will leave wherever you are. If she continues to do it, remove her from the situation, take her to the car and tell her she can't do that and you will have to leave now. Be consistant. Kids at 1 year old understand so much more then we give them credit for. Hope this helps. Good luck.

We have a happy screamer too right now. I have be advised from other moms who have gone through it, it is a phase and will too pass. I can't wait though.

We have had success with redirecting such as "do singing" and get him to sing a song (which because he is 13 months means "ahhhh" in his pretty singing voice). We basically try to give him ideas of other outlets to use his voice, since his intent behind the behavior is to hear his lovely loud voice. We also ask him to do other noises he makes like "do scary", "do barking", whatever we know is in his repetoire. We also simple say in a calm quiet voice every single time "no screaming". He understands what we are saying because when we say the word screaming now (if he is not screaming) he does a nice short loud scream and smiles at us (letting us know he has such a great understanding!!).

It is totally embarrassing in public and some days he screams more than others, but we are just glad they are screams of happiness rather than tantruming screams. We also do baby sign language though, so his screams are not means of communicating anything to us other than loving to hear his voice.

Good luck, I can't wait to read some other ideas that people have come up with. Maybe it will give us more ways to redirect his loud voice :)

We have had a lot of success with the flick. When any of our kids have done this sort of thing, we flick them on the cheek near the corner of the mouth and tell them "no screaming" or "No! Use your inside voice." or whatever the situation warrents. It has worked wonderfully!

My 3 1/2 year old granddaughter did that at about the same age, and I was asking EVERYONE what to do about it. Concensus was that she's just testing her voice, she's learning that she can make noises; that it would pass quickly if we didn't make a big deal about it (reactions from adults can be "fun" and can make the behavior continue longer). It passed within a few weeks. It was hard to deal with when it was happening, but it did pass.

My daughter has had this lovely habit for a few months. I will somtimes blow on her face and that seems to take her mind of doing if just momentarily, then I try giving her something to chew on to keep her mouth busy....I know it's not really a way to break the habit, but how do you really break a 6 month old of doing something?

How funny my husband calls our daughter the same thing. We usually tell her that it is unnecessary (trying not to use the word "no" as she is now saying it back)and to use her words if she wants something. I sometimes lightly bop her lips to make a funny noise when she does it to distract her. Other than that if it is not in public I try to ignore it. She usually stops unless she really wants something then we go through the steps to figure out what she needs. She is just probably voicing some type of frustration that she can not communicate to you yet.

I love one year olds, but they are a lot of work...mine is gearing up for that stuff...she's 10 1/2 months. Her thing now is shaking her head "no" for everything...I'm sure it will be accompanied by vocalization soon :). Anyhow, I would ignore it, as far as the yelling...I'd just respond to her needs without paying any heed to the screeching...once she can communicate her needs thee if she does it I'd say something like "use you inside voice" in the tone and level you'd like her to use. Until then I'd be willing to bet if you don't givre it any attention she'll stop. And by all means don't be embaressed if she does it in public...she is little..so who cares what other people think, it's not like she is 3 or 4. Besides...that's mild in comparison to an out and out temper tantrum which two year olds love to have :) She'll be out of it soon enough :)