Your toddler is now fifteen months old and is learning how to handle his emotions. This is the time when tantrums can become a normal part of his day. Physically, your toddler is doing much more than toddling these days.
Your Child’s Development
At 15 months old, many children learn that they can throw temper tantrums. Much to the dismay of a parent, the tantrums are unpredictable and troublesome. Things may seem fine one minute, and the next minute your child is on the floor, crying and kicking. What causes this behaviour? Well, you may not believe this, but it is actually a good thing that your child has tantrums. This is his way of learning how to deal with frustration. Your toddler is understanding more and more words and phrases every day, but does not yet have the ability to express what they are feeling or thinking in their minds. This leads to a high level of frustration and the only way they know how to deal with this frustration is to have a melt-down.
So, how should you handle these melt-downs? The most important thing to remember is that you should never have your own melt-down when dealing with a tantrum, whether it is at home or in public. Yelling and threatening do absolutely no good when your child is in the midst of a tantrum. Additionally, you probably won’t be able to reason with them at this time either.
There are two schools of thought on how to handle tantrums. Some experts recommend that you simply sit with your child and let them get it out of their system. Other experts say that you should simply ignore a tantrum and not reward the behaviour with attention. You should experiment to see which method works best for you and your child. In either case, it’s never a good idea to leave your child unattended during a tantrum not only for safety reasons, but for emotional reasons as well. When a toddler is having a tantrum, they are confused by their feelings. These feelings can be pretty frightening to him and he will feel more secure knowing that you are close by and aware that he is having a hard time. Once a tantrum has stopped, you should talk to your child about what just happened. Let him know that you understand that he was frustrated and try to help him use words to describe his feelings. This could help avoid a tantrum over the same thing in the future as your child will now have words to use instead of having a melt-down.
Your 15 month old is also likely to start teething again and you will notice the familiar signs of drooling, biting and swollen or sensitive gums which often lead to not eating. This marks the arrival of the first year molars, which can be a trying time for mum and toddler, but there are ways to help with toddler teething, and it's worth remembering there is only one more set of molars to come up before teething becomes a distant memory.
Physical development is in high gear this month. Your 15 month old is probably walking now and is much more confident on his feet these days. This confidence brings about the desire to discover new ways to use his mobility. Climbing may suddenly be his favourite thing to do and your little daredevil may try to stand on top of everything he can! His toys, the bed, the furniture, even the family dog! This is the start of many months, even years, of a parent’s anxiety. In fact, you may amaze yourself at how fast you can get across a room to catch him when he starts to fall!
