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Matthew is 7.5 months and has just discovered that he can scream really loud and piercing.
Please tell me he'll grow out of this stage! He screams for anything, happy, sad, hunger, tiredness so you can imagine that it lasts all day. My ears and head are hurting and I can only imagine what the neighbours think!
Ohh Nell!
My darling boys have squealing competitions.
I'll say no more.
I think they grow into it at different stages........I thought I had "got away with it" as Olivia has never been a screamer, but she has been doing this too Nell, for the past month or so. Drives me mental!
I ignore it for a little while, then look her straight in the eye and say "Darling, please do not scream at me. What is it that you want?" in a really calm low voice. She stops screaming, to then chunter on with whatever she wants ("More drink, Mummy, more drink"/"More cheese Mummy, more cheese" are the usual ones!!)
She can then repeat "More drink, Mummy, more drink"/"More cheese Mummy, more cheese"about 200 times whilst I organise it. That drives me mental too!!
Jacob has gone through stages where he enjoys a good squeal too LOL! It's usually only squeals of delight more than anything - he never does it when he's upset or frustrated. But he does know that it gets your attention!
I had to laugh as a couple of months ago we were doing the grocery shopping (one of Jacob's favourite places to squeal as there is so much to look at etc and people always smile at him and talk to him) and in one particular aisle there was 2 little old ladies who were busily studying some product on the shelf. Just as I was wheeling the trolley past them (they had their backs to me), Jacob lets out a rip-roaring squeal and I swear the pair of them just about had coronaries right then and there!! They turned around as quick as anything and then of course Jacob smiles and bats his little eyelashes at them ever so sweetly........he loves little old ladies! ROFL They then launched into a thorough conversation with Jacob and I........
LOL - that's Keenan's way of communicating that he would like something - thank you Mum.....
He'll find a bag of biscuits (or whatever) he can't open himself, get frustrated, then start waving the bag hysterically, and screaming at the top of his lungs until I get him one.
I am going slowly deaf, and cannot drink Ribena in his presence for the same 'I would like some please mum' Banshee screech.
Oh the joys!
Hope they do grow out of it!!!
(I think he will when he either learns to sign, or speak! LOL - for my ears sake, I hope he learns FAST!!!)
Matilda went through a phase of screaming for a few months, and I would put my hands over my ears & scream back LOL... but truely sometimes she would pierce the ears & I think it was often in frustration. We did learn signs from around 8 months to help communicate and also she started walking at 9 1/2 months and after that she stopped squealing...hopefully for now :)
Screaming......part of my childrens vocab too unfortunately for me. I am the one in the house who talks the most but I am the quietest in the house IYKWIM. I too think it comes adn goes in stages, and the more reaction the more fun it is. Jessica and jemma use it as a game, they scream at each other and laugh, great for my head too. Josh does it when he doesn't get his own way, but the loss of the xbox is beginning to help him stop screaming. Even Jordan screams to make me pay attention to what Josh is doing to her and she's 11. It totally revs my head and sometimes makes me want to scream too.
I do try to stop jemma by speaking softly to her and often this works, but screaming back doens't work for me, just makes them think they should keep doing it. LOL
GOod luck Nell, have you thought about ear plugs?
Cheers mcihelle
Oh the memories! Yes my little boy went through that phase at about that age. Worst of all my mother was staying with us and kept saying that I had to make it stop because it hurt her ears!!! OMG what angst it caused! My strategy was to ignore it so that DS never benefited from squealing/screaming. However mother constantly undermined me and growled at him! She became quite cross and I (stupidly) retorted at one point: "So what do you want me to do? smack him?" She became all huffy and said "oh of course not!" A classic example of how she makes everyone around her feel like they are just not good enough but when I suggested she have a go at dealing with it she was lost on what to do. I think poor DS was also voicing the tension in the air... he got over it anyhow after about 3/4 months of doing it. My nephew did it too at the same age (and yes mother spoke accusingly of that too... implying that my poor sister was doing something wrong).
Oh and btw I've NEVER smacked my DS! Rereading my post it could seem that I used that as a strategy on occassion! Smacking is another contentious issue with me and some of my relatives: I never believe in it, they do :(
7.5 months you are lucky!! Amy has just discovered her voice at 4 months.