Conduct Disorder Support Group

Tantrums are best handled by not handling them. Let him have them and as long as he is not hurting himself or anyone else leave him alone, don't say a word to him or even look at him. walk out of the room if need be. By you not paying any attention to him they will subside. Yes it is hard to ignore your child. But once he is done then pay attention to him and go about your day. This is something he has to work out on his one. Most likely he is not getting what he wants so he is angry at you. He needs to learn how to deal with his anger. If he does not and you continue to give in to him this will only get worse. And harder to correct.

My son also has severe tantrums,
he is now almost 8 and still has them. at first i would ignore him completely and he would drag himself from my clothes as i walked around ignoring him, eventually.....around 7 years old he would go to his room, slam the door and scream and bang on walls..... he is a very aggressive child now....we are working with doctors and meds.... but the amount of time he screams has cut down drastically from 2 hours around 5 and 6 years old to minutes now. he still has them but being in his room and the shorter time is much better. What else can you really do to stop the screaming. But, ignoring the situation definatly cuts the time down and you aren't adding any fuel to the fire that way. If he would start to do something to hurt himself...then you have to worry about restraint. He is still young...please know that there is so much hope!

My son has severe tantrums also, he is the type that is abusive towards himself and will hurt himself at the blink of an eye...so what i have to do is hold him firm enough that he can't get out so i usually craddle him..i continue to talk to him (not yelling) and just reassuring him that when he is done than i will let him go! If he isn't hurting himself that i will put him in the living room where everyone else is and let everyone know to just leave him alone...the reason i don't put him in his room is cause than for sure he'll start hurting himself on something! But i have found that the less attention he receives from his tantrums the less time they take from beginning to end but that doesn't always work!