Shrieking! Help my ears please!

[sunnydays]

I have a 15 month old who shrieks a very high pitched squeal constantly throughout the day...just for fun and to hear his own voice. Then often the other kids copy him. The older kids know they are not allowed to scream in the house, but the one year olds don't understand. It grates on my nerves so much that I feel like screaming myself by the end of the day! Does anyone have tips for a child this age to stop them from shrieking for fun?

[Sandbox Sally]

ME tooooooo! Mine is 14 almost 15 mo. She does it all day lately. It's killing us! No advice, but I am asking for some too.

Can we cling to each other in horror until this is resolved??:unsure:

[michellesmunchkins]

I'm right there with you ladies...I have one who is 14 months and does it too. Drives everyone nuts!!!! Would love to hear advice, I've tried all my go to 'trick's and NOTHING works with this one!

[Crayola kiddies]

Me too .... I have a 13 month old shrieker ..... I think its a " your not looking at/paying 100% of your attention to me" shriek. It's seriously grates on my last nerve too. Thank god she still naps twice a day and I'm not encouraging her to give it up anytime soon ..... I'm sure it has to do with the lack of vocabulary but she is rather chatting in her own language .... So I'll take some advise too

[momof5]

ME tooo, I have an 11 month old and 16 month old that do this all day as well!! Between those two and my other one that screamed i felt like i was in a zoo as well!!!

[Mamma_Mia]

((Note to self: Don't take in any 11-16mos olds)) :laugh:

[jazmic]

I have the exact same problem too! My daughter started, then my son, now my dcb is copying as well. *siiiiiiiiigh*. Makes for a VERY long day.

[sunnydays]

Well...at least I know I am not alone! I am hoping this phase passes by soon...I have the feeling that the more I tell him not to do it, the more he will want to do it...he get s devilish smile and does it more:blink: When my older ones were doing this I had to resort to time-outs and the screaming stopped really fast, but they understood...it's hard to tell a 15 month old why he is in time-out! Sigh...I guess at least we can all support each other through this ;)

[Momof4]

I have two boys, 18 month old & 25 month old who are both screamers just for fun. Ok, I must be a real b*#Tch because I put a stop to screaming immediately! I tell them to stop and that they can be really noisy when we go outside, which is every morning.

Sometimes it still carries over when we come back inside and I just have to remind them that they have to change to their inside voices so they don't hurt all of our ears. It's unbelievably ear-splitting when they are loud, absolutely unbelievable how much it hurts my ears! There's no way I would let them continue to do that inside. They know I mean what I say or there is a consequence so they do stop. You always have to follow through on a time out or whatever you use as your punishment, never give in. Then they will know that whatever you say you mean.

[Cocoon]

I have a 14 months old dck and he does it too but now very occasionally. I don't know if it helped but when he screams I scream too. He probably thought " I better stop screaming as I don't want to hear her scream" :)

Now the same kid attacks the other dkg when his parents around. He doesn't do it when they are not here. Probably he gets excited.

[Spixie33]

I have a 15 month old who likes to shriek. It is usually very random that she will just do it while watching the other kids or while standing around.
I think she is doing it to hear her own voice and try it out.
Thankfully she does it for only a few minutes at a time once a day or twice a day.

I alternate approaches....I start by firmly saying "No. Stop. That hurts our ears" and give her a serious look so she sees it is not funny.

If that doesn't work then I try and ignore it and see if she loses interest when no one engages.

I find one or the other usually works. Sometimes she likes getting me to address her so it gets worse and then I switch to method 2 and sometimes method 1 works.

The worst is when my three year old DCK laugh and find it funny which then makes the shrieks go on and on and i have to give a scowl and a scolding to each of the kids for encouraging her;)

[Crayola kiddies]

Well for my 13month old I've tried ignoring , doesn't work, I've tried saying no shrieking or inside voice, doesn't work, I've tried putting the child in a playpen, makes it worse, I've tried wispering, doesn't work ..... Even the parents are exasperated. As I said before good thing she has two naps a day : )

[sunnydays]

I think the problem is the young age. For 18 months +, time-outs have worked well for me and I had eliminated (almost) the shrieking that the kids were doing and only had to remind them not to scream in the house. But, for this 15 month old, I am not at all sure that he gets the time-out concept and am hesitant to use it for screaming. Have any of you had success with time-outs at this age?

[Littledragon]

time out. stick em in the corner. stick on in the corner, the others will catch on. say "no screaming in the house" once and shush them. then when they do it again, corner. It sounds mean, but it works. I did it with a 11 month old and he caugh on really quick