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Child Item

16 month old changed behaviour

dutopia

We have a 16 month old girl.

Generally she has been a great baby, very mild mannered and happy. A great eater, loves people and playing games. The only difficultly we've had with her is sleeping at night - she has never slept through the night since she was born!

In the last few weeks her behaviour has been changing a lot and has us both and a bit stressed and worried.

For a start, she has become very clingy to my wife. My wife can barely use the bathroom or take a shower without here having a meltdown and screaming for mama. When I try and comfort her, she isn't having any of it... she pushes me away and refuses to let me pick her up. For a bit of background, I've always spent the evening times with her playing, etc and she used to be very affectionate towards me.

She's also started being really demanding and picky when it comes to food.

She also has these meltdowns kind of randomly... in her car seat, at night, etc.

Any advice would be appreciated.

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monflat

Nothing wrong there to be honest typical behaviour. .
They all go through different phases of being clingy to one and all about the other parent.

Some say the " terrible twos" start a lot earlier than two years.

I wouldn't worry about it or read too much into itto be honest .

She's just discovering herself as a person!

RentDayBlues

As much as you may not want to hear this, it's called becoming a toddler and it's a tough phase

There's another bout of seperation anxiety around this time so please don't feel that you are being rejected in favour of your wife, give it a few weeks and it will be the other way around

Patience, it's such a hard time for them as they begin to express their personality but don't have the emotional maturity or vocabulary to tell you.

Ours is 29 months and it's getting easier

pwurple

Congratulations, baby is becoming toddler!

All totally normal behaviour. Terrible twos last anywhere from 14 months to 3.5 yrs.

Enjoy!

dutopia

Thank you all for the replies... eased my worrying a bit. I thought it might be the 'terrible twos' but it's been such a dramatic change in behaviour for her I was concerned. Guess we're in for a tough time with her for a while

Digs

My daughter is 19 months now and I remember when she was around the same age as yours asking my mum if certain behaviour were normal i.e descending into hysterics at the drop of a hat and becoming completely unreasonable. We were getting a bit worried as she was usually a pretty consistent happy, laid back baba.

My mum replied absolutely and the great part is it will last a good few years!!

she'd be worried if these behaviours didn't develop!

She also added we may think there's no reason for the tantrums, there is, she just can't communicate them very well at the moment! I repeat that one to myself regularly.... Mid tantrum!

emer_b

At around this age my little girl started slapping everyone across the face and head, adults and other kids! Was an awful phase. I used to think every type of negative behaviour was here to stay but thankfully all these phases pass.
The terrible twos definitely start at around 1.5!

DoctorBoo

Would she be ill? I know a baby who went through something similar, and it turns out she had a chest infection. No symptoms other than the bad behavior!

Nead21

Yep totally normal I'm afraid.

We had what started as clingy behaviour turn into tantrums, meltdowns, not to forgot the slapping. We just tried to ignore or distract the tantrums and correct the bad behaviour (in the hope that eventually he'd get the message!). For the most part he's grown out of it, but we'll still have the tantrums if he get frustrated or things are going as he planned. He's 19 months now.

dutopia

DoctorBoo wrote: »

Would she be ill? I know a baby who went through something similar, and it turns out she had a chest infection. No symptoms other than the bad behavior!

She has a bit of a cough, so we should bring her to the doctor.

dutopia

Nead21 wrote: »

Yep totally normal I'm afraid.

We had what started as clingy behaviour turn into tantrums, meltdowns, not to forgot the slapping. We just tried to ignore or distract the tantrums and correct the bad behaviour (in the hope that eventually he'd get the message!). For the most part he's grown out of it, but we'll still have the tantrums if he get frustrated or things are going as he planned. He's 19 months now.

Thanks for sharing.

monflat

dutopia wrote: »

She has a bit of a cough, so we should bring her to the doctor.

No not necessarily.

She just can't tell you that she has a throbbing headache or stomach pain or whatever.
That's all.