I think something is wrong..

[moanamom]

I don't know whether I should be concerned about my 1.5 year old. He is very clever, walked from early age, says over 10 words, understands direction/commands, is very social & loving. On the other hand, he is extremely demanding, needs constant attention, throws everything, climbs and jumps from anything in sight, throws food, pulls on baby gate, doesn't sleep well, wakes up at 5am every morning screaming until he has a bottle (this drives me mad), bangs his head against tv, doesn't nap well, screams when I leave the room, runs off from me, won't sit in high chair if we're out, won't sit in trolley. None of my friends children are like this so I don't understand why mine is. Please help, is it just his age & something he will grow out of or is this a sign of something like adhd? It's starting to effect my mental health as I just feel I have no time for myself at all. I have changed my working hours so that I'm not home as much because I just don't enjoy it most days. I love my son more than anything & accept it may just be his personality. Most days I am so stressed I feel like we need professional help. Any advice welcome.

That does sound pretty exhausting

I'd do the m-chat test and see what his risk of autism is, it may be low but it's worth ruling out

As for the sleep, try the No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers. We had sone success with us and it's very gentle.

With the napping, is there anything that works, like sleeping with him or going for a drive?

@JiltedJohnsJulie he doesn't have autism he is quite the opposite.

That's fine, as I said I only mentioned doing the test just to rule it out

@moanamom it seems to me he is tired. A lot of kids do not get enough sleep and are "difficult" because they are tired.

If at all possible, I'd try to make a nap routine so he gets enough sleep during both day and night and see if that improves things.

The recommendation is between 18-36 months the babies should move from 2,5 hours of daytime sleep to 1 hour of daytime sleep while keeping night sleep to 10-12 hours.

It is likely to be personality as everything you described is age appropriate - though it does sound very tough with it all happening at the same time.

@ZooKeeper19 to be honest I think so too. He definitely doesn't get enough sleep but I don't know how to improve this. I try everything to get him to nap, have recently resorted going for walks or drives. Before that, he would go down easily in cot for 2.5 hours. At night he has 11 hours on a good night. I might try today to keep him up until 11am and hopefully he may have a long nap this afternoon fingers crossed. I do find the better he sleeps during the day, the better at night. Thanks for the comments.