Sudden Change in 16mo Behaviour & Temperament - Help!

[Theonlyoneiknow]

DD is 16 months old and (used) to be very laid back. Nothing really bothered her. She happily ate everything she was given, played with her older brother well, smiled all the time, went to bed and slept well - no problems. Friends all commented on how content and happy baby she was.

Now it is like a switch has been flicked and within a couple of weeks she has totally changed her temperament and behaviour. She loses the plot at the smallest of things and has wild tantrums when she doesn't get her own way (toys, food, nappy changing, getting dressed - anything really). She screams when I put her down to bed and has random screaming episodes, including trantrums, in the middle of the night.

Is this normal developmental behaviour?? She can't say much apart from babbling words and 'shoes'! (she loves her slippers and shoes!). I know the best way to deal with these tantrums is to distract then ignore but it's actually really worrying me. DS was never like this (I know that doesn't mean anything as they are two different people so it's more of a shock). And it is such a change from her normal personality.

She also had her MMR 21 days ago. It's now about whether I should or shouldn't have given her the vaccination but I was also wondering if this could be a side effect/reaction? She was violently sick 24hrs after her jab and didn't eat for 4 days (well, ate a yoghurt and a couple of rice cakes a day but that was all - the GP wrote on her notes this was a reaction). She then started to eat normally but the screaming at night started and then last week, 14 days after her jab the tantrums commenced.

Any advice or words of wisdom you could pass on would be gratefully appreciated.

Many Thanks
TOOIK

Must be a bit of a shock for you, such a change!

My DS (nearly 17 months) has gone through similar stuff; throwing himself around when it's bedtime, chucking food, hitting etc. Think it's much more likely to be a usual phase than MMR related.

Few thoughts from me would be:

Could it be teething? My son's just got his first molars (upper and lower) and that's been a month of pain and anguish for all of us! Think the increased blood pressure to the gums when they lie down makes it worse too, so can seem worse during nappy changes / bedtime etc. That might also tie-in with the not wanting to eat?

Tantrums at night - night terrors, teething, nightmares or growing pains perhaps? Think we've had all of those; the night terrors were horrid as couldn't comfort him or anything.

For the last month or so, during the molar teething, we've certainly had the wake ups during the night with crying and screaming. Usually a dose of Calpol, a feed and a cuddle settle things but sometimes we have an hour or so of faffing about before he'll settle again.

I also think that a lot of the tantrums are pure frustartion; while to them they're quite clearly gesturing and saying 'please mother, pass me that piece of yellow lego near the fireplace', what we hear is 'babble, babble, babble' and say to them 'oh, you want a drink?'. It must drive them crackers! Or maybe I just think that because I've spent today totally misinterpreting practically everything my frustrated, sore gummed little lad has been trying to tell me - the poor little thing!

No real advice or wisdom, but hope some of the above might resonate with you - only advice I would give is...repeat 'this is a phase and it WILL pass' regularly!

Thanks north, there was a typo in my post above BTW it should have been not instead of now when I was talking about the MMR, I was always going to vaccinate.

Thing is, although DS didn't have many tantrums ad a toddler he was a very high needs baby from the start with colic, barely slept, screamed when teething for nights on end so I am not sure why I am so out of kilter with DD, Maybe because she was the total opposite of her brother as a baby but is now the opposite of him as a toddler!!

Will get à good look inside her mouth tomorrow and see if there are any molars lurking! Nursery said she hasn't thrown any tantrums at all and been same as always, typical!!

I always tell other mums that this phase will pass, not sure why I am not telling myself that too!!

Thanks for advice and kind words x