Toddler always angry or crying!

[minties]

Omg, I don't know what has happened to Emma but she's turned into a furious and miserable little mess! She gets angry all the time and will scream this ear piercing long scream and frown and smack me/others. She throws things in a rage. She then breaks down and sobs, then gets angry again. My ears are hurting from all the noise!

She seems to have been in a fowl mood for a few weeks now.

She doesn't smile much now and hardly ever laughs

 

[Zephram]

Aw, bless! Both of my kids have had a grumpy toddler phase, full of screaming and crying and throwing and hitting. They were worst around the 18 month mark.

They're becoming more aware of the world around them but they can't communicate as well as they want to, and they are also completely egocentric and think the world should revolve around them and find it very shocking when it doesn't!

She will grow out of it and you'll get your smiles back.

 

[LoraLoo]

This is Nellie for the last fortnight.. cant do a thing with her!

 

[minties]

Thanks you guys! It is good to know it is normal. I don't think Sophie ever did this, she's never had terrible twos or anything, but Thomas was a moody toddler.

Last night she woke at 10:20, midnight, 1am, 2am and 2:30am and got angry at me at the 2 & 2:30am wakings and screamed and woke everyone up.

 

[mccluskeyj17]

It sounds like she is frustrated. Does she have her words to express herself? If she doesn't have a way to communicate it can be frustrating. Has she reached her developmental milestones. I would suggest getting her evaluated to make sure that she is not being affected by autism and that it is the terrible twos.

 

[LoveCakes]

My go to for strange behaviour is teeth. Mine is the same age and getting a molar it looks like, what about Emma?

 

[CRWx]

I thought teeth and frustration at not being able to do as much/communicate as much as she would like.

 

[Eleanor ace]

Isobel was a joyous baby and then not long after she turned 1 she went like this, always screaming/crying/screeching/whinging and rarely happy. It lasted until about 3 months ago and now, at just turned 2, she is happy a lot more and doesn't scream/cry all that much. I don't know what it was with her, I assume frustration at not being able to communicate what she wants, and the improvement in her behaviour does seem to have coincided with her being able to talk properly.
Could you perhaps try baby signing with Emma, see if increasing her communication helps?

 

[minties]

I don't think I would jump to autism, she's developing just fine and is totally normal in her social development (my eldest is on the spectrum). She is 14 months old, surely it is a bit hasty to cry autism because she is grumpy?! That scares me! And of course she has regular checkups as do all babies and toddlers here (6 weeks, 3 months, 5 months, 9 months and 12 months so far then another at 15 months) and they are there to check for emotional and social development.

She can meow and say no, but Thomas was a late talker and Sophie had her first word at 16 months and had long complex sentences by 20 months so I'm not worried. She has some signs she uses that she made up, a fist open and close motion for 'give me that', a chomping motion with her mouth for 'I am hungry', and she does all the normal things like high fives, points, waves, claps, walks, runs, climbs, points out body parts, follows instructions (go find a person/object etc). Dances, sings, plays, stacks blocks, tries to click duplo together, makes eye contact with everyone, gives cuddled bla bla bla.

I think she's frustrated because she keeps wanting to do things like climb up the bunk bed ladder, stand on the coffee table, play with the computer mouse, throw things in the toilet and follow her siblings everywhere and can't always do so.

However she did have a fever for 3 days a week ago and has been grumpy since then?

No sign of molars, she doesn't even have many front teeth yet, 4 and 2 emerging .

She mostly gets angry when someone says no, or she's removed from a situation.

 

[_Meep_]

I wouldn't think for one second that a grumpy toddler was at risk of having autism. Her behaviour, although clearly difficult at times, sounds pretty typical for her age to me.

 

[liz1985]

I'd never have thought Autism from what you posted. Especially not at 14months old. My ds is in the spectrum and was the happiest, easy going toddler so that wouldn't even fit for all children anyway. She may just be getting ready for a big development leap.

 

[Zephram]

Having a toddler be grumpy because of teething or communication difficulties or because they're an egocentric little grump like every other toddler on the planet, does not in anyway point to autism. Especially not at 14 months. She sounds frustrated to me and is behaving exactly like my two who are developmentally normal.

I think you got really lucky with Sophie who sounds very chilled out! It's a personality thing.

 

[minties]

Oh yeah, Sophie is totally an exception to the norm. She has never had a difficult day, let alone stage, that I can recall. She's super sweet and easy-going. Thomas on the other hand is very hard work.

Emma has always been spirited, but she's also really funny and goofy (usually).

I thought about the teeth thing, and had a poke about her gums, and what do you know? She is cutting 3 molars! So surprised - she's been a late teether so far and on the bottom, still just has those front two incisors. She is teething in a much different pattern to the others, they had all their incisors and canines before getting molars.

I've also come to the conclusion that she's mainly getting upset by Thomas, who is relentless in his crazy play antics and bossiness, as she is much less grumpy when he's not around. So I will try and help guide him in that area. He is on school holidays for the nest two weeks so that will be fun.

She's also super crazy hungry, eating and nursing day and night, so growth spuirt perhaps .

Thanks you guys!