to be struggling with my toddler?

[Magicalmrsmoy]

He's 15 months and driving me INSANE. Just whinges and complains at me from the minute he wakes up to the minute he goes to bed (thank fuck he sleeps through the night for the most part). I can't do anything while he plays near me - I have to be interacting with him 1:1/physically holding him at all times or he goes ballistic. The only thing that keeps him content is a breastfeed but I'm trying to keep that to morning and bedtime only as he would never be off it otherwise.

He's not ill, not teething and he naps well and eats well. It's just him. I don't remember my older DS (7) being anywhere near this much hard work at the same age.

AIBU to be going round the twist?

0 chance of that, I'm not able to have more children.

No, I just can't stand the noise? In much the same way I wouldn't be able to enjoy eating a meal with someone drilling next to my head. Surely that's normal?

Yeah I used to use the carrier loads but even back carrying he's just too heavy for me now - 12kg.

YANBU at all to be finding it stressful, it sounds awful. I think you just have to try to prioritise time for yourself during his naptime and evenings as far as is possible so that you feel rested and less touched out, keep taking him out of the house so that there are lots of other people and distractions around for him, and keep telling yourself that it is a phase and it will pass. You're doing everything right, and he will gradually learn to separate a bit more from you.

DD was a bit like this 14-18 months. At 18m she went to a childminder one day a week. No idea if it was coincidence or just a developmental shift that got her playing independently. If you're not working, is there money in the budget for a couple of short days in childcare? It was so relentless.

DS was like this. He’s 3.5 now and still very much a mummy’s boy, but things have improved vastly over the last six months or so. I sympathise - I found the stage from about 5-18 months pretty torturous because he wanted constant interaction and was loudly miserable if left to his own devices, but wasn’t mobile/capable enough to really do much, so I was losing the plot trying to find ways to keep him entertained!

It’s not much help when you’re in the thick of it, I know, but it will get better, I promise.

With a properly fitting carrier, it won’t hurt no matter the weight of a child. Check your local sling library for insight into toddler carriers.

Everytime I see one of these threads the child is 14-16m

It is a properly fitted carrier (I went to a sling library); it's my back. I have ongoing pain from a dodgy epidural.

Yes