Question
Our son turned 4 in December. He has proven that he is able to behave appropriately-no problems in preschool and generally people who know him think he is very "well-behaved and polite". But at home, he is still having complete emotional outbursts and meltdowns/fits. He starts getting upset and goes 0-60 in a matter of seconds. Since he began having fits around 18 months, we have him go to his room until it's past, then move on. As he has gotten older, we have done a lot of to bed after dinner (doctor says 3 or 4 year old boys who have fits like this are much too tired and must get more rest!) Lately, he has been going to bed after dinner a couple times a week, having a couple bad fits a week, roughly. Today, he actually spit at me as I was removing him and putting him in his room, because he was refusing to go. For this he remained in his room from breakfast through lunch while the rest of us played outside. At lunch, I explained that the doctor said he needs 3 nights of to bed after dinner now, and if he has another fit in this time, it starts over. We don't watch TV, except for a Friday night movie, and his room has been stripped of all toys and fun and has only a few books in it. His defiance and disobedience seem to be getting worse and I feel like I am running out of consequence ideas. We did the ticket system a few months ago for telling us no, and that seemed to work, but we stopped doing it because he was doing better. (mistake??) The fits don't necessarily happen daily, so hard to do tickets here... I need some advice with this kid! With the tickets, he would spend the remainder of the day in his room with no toys, lose his book before bed, and be put to bed after dinner. Our house does not have a powder room or smaller area to put him in...but maybe I should gate him in the hall? Help please!
