Toddler mood swings, what is normal behaviour?!

[Shavy86]

So I have a 2.5 year old. She is very bright and active, has good language and social skills. However, some days she will seem like a completely different child! This morning at playgroup she was clingy and tearful, clung to me all morning, ignored all her friends that she normally interacts with. Burst into tears if I went out of her sight for a moment. She also only pointed to things and used one word to say what she wanted instead of using sentences. She had a good breakfast, a 12 hour sleep last night, is not sick or anything. Is it normal for toddlers to have such "off days" where they are so drastically different from normal? she has these days every so often but I find it so strange and wondered if its normal or a sign of something more serious. All the mums where asking me if she was ok and I didn't know what to say because nothing bad had happened and she wasn't sick!

[FortunesFave]

I noticed that when mine did this, it was often a sign they were coming down with something.

Usually, they start to feel unwell and don't have the words to express that...so their behaviour goes downhill.

Keep an eye on her ears and throat and temperature. I would not be surprised if she's got something or other and is starting to feel poorly.

[user1493413286]

If you think about it adults have off days but we hide it rather than show it like that so it’s fairly similar but a toddler just doesn’t internalise it. She may be feeling just a bit off colour and fighting something off that she won’t become ill with because her immune system has seen it off but it’s still had an impact. My DD has days where she’s just off the wall and other days where she’s quite calm with no real obvious reason