Sorry for the long post but looking for advice.
My daughter is 4 and the most wonderful girl. She's thoughtful, kind and has an incredible desire to explore and learn.
Outside of the home or when others are here, she's got beautiful manners and is consistently complimented on being so brilliant. She's sassy, outgoing and energetic but never any bother to those who spend time with her.
However. Once we are home there are a few things I struggle with. She can go from this little ray of sunshine to absolute meltdown state in seconds. During these periods, she'll be hitting, scratching and doing anything she can to cause damage and harm. I feel like I have tried absolutely everything in those moments and they can last hours.
She can also pick fights, she'll be fine one moment and then goading to be in trouble the next. She also doesn't sleep well at all.
I raised a concern with the HV team regarding the sleep as she averages 5-7 hours a night, often split. If I don't spend hours trying to get her to bed, she just won't sleep. I've tried leaving her up until she crashes and she just.. doesn't. Complains that her body won't stop moving. They were, unfortunately, less than helpful and I'm no further to support. We follow all of the excellent sleep hygiene tips, weighted blankets and magnesium creams etc but nothing helps.
I discussed with nursery to see whether they notice ill effects and they report she is happy, helpful and absolutely wild there. Showing zero sleepy signs which tracks with home.
Tonight, she asked to go to bed as she has a bit of a cough, I followed her up and almost immediately she lost it. She was hitting and scratching and managed to draw blood on my face before I could move out the way. This meltdown came to an end when she tried to smack me round the face with a book but put too much force behind it, overbalanced and landed on her chin.
After the incident, we chatted about it and she was really upset she'd hurt me. Said her body couldn't stop even when she wanted it to.
She was away from me last night at a sleepover which does usually make these incidents worse on her return.
She is such a bright girl and so so eager to learn but I am so worried about how the sleep will impact on school come Sept. I'm also concerned about how to manage her behaviour, especially as she gets bigger.
I dread any time she is away because it's so awful when she comes home. Equally I am exhausted from a high energy child who runs on zero sleep.
Any advice for any types of support would be really appreciated at this stage.