Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Help with a stubborn baby!

With dangerous things, I used a warning then time out starting at about 10months. Ds didn't like time out, so this method worked. As far as frustration stuff, I would try to intervene before the meltdown happened. Honestly, it has gotten better with age. What can still be a struggle is a battle of wills. This too is less frequent, but when it happens- wow watch out. Luckily for me ds2 is more easy going.

Good luck and hang in there!

Thanks, everyone!

Also, I don't use rewards, I believe in intrinsicly encouraging kids. And no chocolate until at least three!

HK, our babies sound like twins

Oh, no way could I have lived without chocolate until my daughter was three.

Haha, that's what "after they're in bed" is for

But chocolate is intrinsic.

Once it's inside, the baby's stomach is intrinsically full of wholesome chocolaty goodness!

And gifted children intrinsically age much faster than other children, so your baby is chronologically at least five.

This brings back memories. :-)

If it was just frustration, we would ask if he needed help or gently provide suggestions, but not take over. If frustration morphed into what we called a "loop", which meant he spun into an obsessive tizzy from which no learning or personal recovery was possible, we tried to distract and if it failed removed him from the situation. (The loop was often a result of needing food or sleep also.). We would definitely distract if we thought a loop was likely.

If it was a safety issue, he got one warning and then either a time out for him of 1 minute per year of age or removal of offending item for usually rest of day.

If he threw something, he lost it immediately for an hour or more.

It worked like a charm for us. At 18 months, we would take a deep breath and count to 10 but he could not say his numbers at 12 months.

Edit: ...and when out of sight I ate tons of chocolate on some days... Still do...

If he's not hurting himself with the crying and temper, I wouldn't worry about it. He's frustrated because, as you say, his body hasn't caught up with his mind. It will be a problem for some time.

DS as a baby would get so frustrated at not being physically able to do something his brain wanted to do, he would bang his head on the floor, the wall, the furniture. He had a perpetual bruise on his forehead for at least a year (from that and, well, falling into the coffee table). I found that if I went to him, took his head in my hands and pretended to bang him into whatever it was, while saying "bang! bang!" dramatically, he would start to giggle and get sidetracked from the actual banging.

Oh, and I likely ate a lot of chocolate, too.

Um, also... chocolate (unless it's 100% pure cocoa) would contain glucose, which is brain fuel.

Oh my HK:

"Most of the time, she's angelic enough that nobody who hasn't seen that side of her would ever for a single second believe it."

Ah-ha.... With bells on.

Introducing good quality adult chocolate is redirection in a way. We did this and ended up with a kid who likes chocolate but doesn't like any other sweeties (candy to you). Win!