Looking for some advice, long post- sorry. I posted when my daughter was around 15 months old that she was having pretty severe tantrums. Since 17 months they've actually been very unalarming and infrequent. She's now 22 months old and this evening, her meltdown lasted for 3.5 hours. She'd already had several throughout the day, but this one lasted from 4pm- 7:30pm bed time.
She was totally frantic, she pinched me, kicked me, pinched and slapped my husband, attacked our dog (yes I know, please don't tell me how awful this is!!) Threw her dinner and broke a toy basket she has.
There was no trigger for the tantrum when it started, and the reason it lasted so long was due to her finding other reasons (ice cream, juice etc) all of which were a firm no. Not as a consequence of said tantrum, but because we didn't want her having it.
I mentioned it to a friend who used to be head of SENCO at a primary school and she said it sounds like she has emotional and sensory dysregulation. Now, before she said it I would never have thought it, just put it down to toddlerhood. But since she said it and I've googled it, a lot of things make sense.
Also turns out none of my other friends kids have tantrums to this extent.
I feel very worried now