could there be something wrong with my 1 year old?

[may08]

Hi,

This probably seems really bizarre but I am wondering if there could be something wrong with my little boy who is a year old. He constantly whinges and crys and seems permantley bored. I take him out of the house on and off all day as he seems to be at his worst when at home. He is fine at baby groups and other peoples houses for anywhere between half - one hour then he starts crying. This morning he woke at 6.30am and by 7.45am he was crying cos he was fed up. Then at 9am he had a major screaming fit because I put his slippers on! This resulted in me having to carry him round the house and then go out in the pram to calm him down.
I put him down for a sleep cos he seems really tired and when he wakes he is even more grumpy and again I have to go out to calm him down.
Its wearing me out; and I'm starting to wonder if there could be something wrong with him (I have no idea what!), although when he is happy (for those short periods of time) you would never think there could be anything wrong in a million years!
Do you think its worth a trip to the GP?

I think the first things to look at are his sleeping and diet.

Is he sleeping around 3 hrs during the day - a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap and then going to bed at a reasonable hour in the evening (7pm) and sleeping through for 12 hours or so?

Keep a diary of what he eats and have some consideration for packaged/processes food with all its additives - especially preservatives, colours, sugar etc. Try to switch him to whole foods and meals cooked from scratch etc

You could trial taking him off dairy foods and see if that helps. I find my kids love soy milk and yoghurts etc.

Things to do at home that might keep him interested - play dough, cooking, sitting down with him to build things etc or maybe a Baby Einstein DVD?

Just some ideas to help ...

sounds normal and frustrated does he crawl walk? my ds was like this until he could walk and completely different

could he be teething?

but it does sound like frustration can he walk with a walker?

it is hard work but once they find that freedom completely different it doesnt last forever

Sounds normal to me. My ds has been walking since just before his birthday and is often just as you describe. He was a really hard work baby but did get easier once he was mobile. He still has screaming fits when I dress him or put his shoes on. He doesn't like being told 'no' either and screams if I take something off him. I do think he is just strong willed and frustrated. The world still doesn't make sense to them and they can't communicate through any other way. It's hard but I really doubt there's anything wrong if he is happy during the periods you describe. Probably just clever and gets bored quick (that's what I tell myself about ds anyway! )

Sounds like my one year old DS too. (DP still worries something is wrong. I tend to treat the screaming as part of life now.) - If it's any consolation, DS is really cheering up these days...

Go out a lot?

Agree with chaotica, I see his screaming as just normal and he is so much better than he was as a tiny baby that I think I'm really lucky now! Go out as much as poss and keep the change of scenery going, sometimes my ds cheers up just by changing the room we are playing in. I think they get bored of the same 4 walls.

Ok, thanks guys. Just find it hard to accept that I cant really stay in the house for more than an hour but I guess thats the way its going to have to be until he can either walk (think thats still a couple of months away!) or can communicate with me.

Thanks