Evening everyone! FInally have time to log in here.
Gladseow, would love a playdate but I can only make it on weekends[IMG=http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/clipart/sad.gif]
Regarding screaming babies, Thea was very bad last time but we used some methods and it had actually been minimised.
1. Screams when things are being taken away from her - What we did was to ask her gently, 'Give it to mommy.' And kept repeating it. If she doesn't, slowly, very very slowly pry her fingers away from it. Once you have it in your hand, clap your hands and praise her. Slowly, she will understand that by giving, it is a good behaviour. Nowadays, Thea will always give her balls/water bottles/clothes to my helper/me/MIL and starts to clap. When asked, most times she will give it to us. Other time, need a lot more coaxing. But never snatch it from her, exchanging sometimes work sometime doesn't, so the best way is to ask permission from the great princess of the family.
2. Screams when take her away from playground/kiddy ride/water play: It might sound ridiculous to you but it really works. Simply tell her that she only has 5 minutes more to play. Time the 5 minutes and gently carry her away. Add on to say that 'we'll come back another day, say bye bye to playground'. The first time it worked I thought it was just coincidental, but I tried a few times and it really works. However, in circumstances when you really have to take her away like right away, she'll still scream, but I'll just gently tell her that we'll come back another day and she'll calm down.
You will be surprised by how much they are able to understand.
3.Teach hand signs! Actually, Thea only knows 2 types of signs, 'More' and 'Finish'. 'More' is useful if she wants more water/snacks. 'Finish' is when she is done with her meal. She used to throw her bowl, utensils and water bottle on the floor midway her meal and started screaming and dramatically crying. Now that she knows 'finish', when she throws her utensils and we will asked if she has finished, she will rub both hands together to tell us she's done. We'll take her out from her high chair even if she only has 3 mouthful of porridge. No fuss, no crying.
I hope it helps! If you want to know more about handsigns can google, for me, I am too lazy to teach more but it is really useful so far.
Ok, hope it helps. It's purely from my experience, I didn't read it from book so it might not be the right technique. But so far so good. Not much of kicking a big fuss, when she was a baby her temper was really bad and bad sleeper as well. But now is well under controlled, if Thea can survive without screaming I believe other babies will do even better. Just need to be patient. Breath in breath out.
However, I also try to introduce different food to him as much as I could.