My little one cried a lot, and had-has a ton of tantrums. She also has a Sensory Processing Disorder which doesn’t help.

When she was really sick in the PICU, and started to get better she cried a lot. Our geneticist at the time, said it was the greatest sign of life. I tried to remind myself of that everyday. So beautiful, crying is a sign of life.

…….Umm honey, realistically, easier said than done. Her tantrums were killing me.  I would cry, she would cry, and we would cry together. I was super stressed out. I googled, googled, gooogled, for a solution. But in the end, I just stumbled upon something that helped us.

I use a “smell the flowers,” breathing/meditation technique for my daughter. We started around 1 year old. Somehow all on her own she picked up that you smell flowers. She would stop, take a deep breath, and smell them.

Somehow one day it all came together during a tantrum. I told her to smell the flowers, the stars alined, and she stopped crying, started giggling, and smelling the flowers through her tears. For about a year, I did this over and over again reminding her to “smell the flowers” not really expecting much.

I bought dollar store fake flowers and had them everywhere from the changing table, to the car seat, to our diaper bag. I told her teachers about it, to use as a tool at school for melt downs. Her teacher’s loved it and thought it was cute.

Today Penelope has the ability to self soothe. I see her all by herself start breathing in and out slowly during a moment of frustration. It is very satisfying to watch her. I am so proud of her work. She works so hard to overcome frustrations. She still is a toddler and still needs me to help her soothe but its just an added tool for her. It gives her confidence.

Something like this is a great investment in tantrum control. It takes time and practice but you can create your own sayings to match your child’s interest.

Examples like:

“Let’s celebrate take a deep breath and blow the birthday candles out.”

Use bubbles to show them how to take a deep breath in and blow bubble out. Then pretend to blow bubbles or even keep bubbles in your diaper bag for those unexpected tantrums

Read the big bad wolf. Tell them to take a deep breath and blow the house down.

There are lots of ways to make breathing meditation interesting. There are a lot of meditation books and YouTube guided videos for kids. What gets my kiddo going may not get your kiddo going. Don’t get frustrated if this doesn’t work. Trying use a saying, unique to your kid, so they get excited. If you can’t think of something, go to my contact page and email me. We can get creative together and trouble shoot a saying for your little one!