Mood swings

[Babypigeon]

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice on my little boy, he's always been fairly hard work since he was born. But now the last year he literally changes his mood like the wind. He turned 3 on Sunday.

You could be having a really nice time and out of the blue he would become grumpy, stomping his feet, getting angry for no reason.

We then try everything from talking calmly to him, ignoring him to naughty step,to bed or just distracting him nothing seems to work. And then again in the next breath his happy.

I don't compare my children but we never had this with our daughter.

It's becoming a real struggle as he can be so cruel with his words saying things like don't talk to me or don't look at me this really effect his sister she loves him so much but this upsets her.

Is this normal? And what's the best way to tackle these situations?.

[Kelly-moderator Moderator]

Morning,

I know it can be really hard but remember there is always a feeling behind a behaviour. Solihull is a parenting programme that supports parents in understanding their child's behaviour and this is available free of charge on Just One Norfolk -justonenorfolk.nhs.uk/onlin...

If online learning does not suit you, you could self refer for a face to face course through the Early Childhood and Family Service. There is a self referral option on the website which I have listed below.

Alternatively it might be useful to have a look at some websites:

Just One Norfolk website - justonenorfolk.nhs.uk/healt....

Family Hubs - justonenorfolk.nhs.uk/famil...

Early Childhood and Family Service - norfolk.gov.uk/article/4040...

Hope this helps and hope that other parents may have some advice for you too.

[Babypigeon Community Ambassador in reply to Kelly-moderator]

Thank you, we have a feelings chart and we try to talk about it but sometimes he doesn't really know. I will take a look

[MrsHello Community Ambassador]

Hey lovely, sorry for the late reply. Just wanted to check in and see how it’s going. I know this age can be quite up and down behaviour wise. For us I remember thinking I understood toddler years from my oldest and then my next child was completely different. The only rule that consistently worked was work out what triggered the tantrum / meltdown and then we had to learn how to manage it, set rules etc. It’s like being a detective lol. It is really not fun to manage. We tried shortening trips, giving snacks, avoiding certain activities whilst we got on top of understanding and then managing the behaviour. I Hope you have found something that might help on the website. The courses are great although I know sometimes it can be quite hard getting the time to do them. Keep going, you sound like you are trying so many great things already that could help. Xx

[Babypigeon Community Ambassador in reply to MrsHello]

Hi, I haven't had time to look at the course I'm hoping to do it tomorrow, we do give snacks and don't tend to go to far, ours lives are busy with work, nursery/school runs and then looking after my mum. ( Maybe that's the problem) He has always been clingy to me, but the tantrums are over, tonight he is having a meltdown because I took his clothes off to wash them. And that the pjs he wet this morning are in the washing machine 😞. He gets so upset I try talking to him nothing calms him and then in a clock of your fingers he is laughing as if nothing happened.

[MrsHello Community Ambassador in reply to Babypigeon]

Hey, I know it gets so busy right? Even with mine older I’m struggling to find time to dedicate the level of concentration needed to do too much extra. When they are younger and melting down it’s so hard. I can really relate to the unexpected over hardly anything melt downs. I hope you are doing ok as they can be so exhausting! I used to talk a lot to nursery/ play group about things they did that helped. It was good to have some new ideas. I tried adopting some of their things a little with social stories and pre warnings. And pictures for everything. I tried lots of things to be honest and backed myself up with chocolate for me! Not great I know but it helps when it’s really tough at times. Tbh I often found some things worked others didn’t but they could stop working.. trial and error and keeping going was kind of my main rule. And chocolate too!!! X