Change in 22 month old, is it a phase?

[Panda12345]

Hi

Hoping someone can tell me that everything will be OK here! My 22 month old was always a lovely, chilled, happy boy! But recently he has become very shy, has tantrums, bedtime is a struggle and he just isn’t his usual self.
In his defence, he has a 4 month old baby sister who is taking up a lot of my time. And at the same time his development is really taking off, especially his speech.

But I’m concerned, my previously friendly boy now hides behind his hands whenever someone he doesn’t know looks at him. His tantrums can last an hour and while I may know the trigger they descend into something uncontrollable where I couldn’t even give him what he wanted in the first place to stop it.

My husband mentioned autism which I hadn’t even considered, and now he’s got me worried.

Has anyone had any similar experience? Will it get better? Maybe this is now his personality showing and he will be a shy boy? Could it be something more?

I have a 22 month old DD and 4 month old DS. DDs behaviour has been more difficult recently, I'm putting it down to the new arrival, plus her speech has really skyrocketed in the last few weeks. Trying my best to be patient and instil good behaviours but it's testing! We've had a couple of occasions recently where she has met someone new and been terrified of them to the point of sobbing! Like everything else I'm sure it's a phase. Good luck!