are these tantrums or is there somethin wrong??

[mummysgoingmad]

my ds is 11 months old, he's great in the morining, but after his afternoon nap he turns into a monster. he'l only eat half of his dinner, but will quite happily much a banana for pudding. i think its better him eating that than him waking through the night wanting milk. i have tryed everything to get him to eat all his dinner with no results, and have stopped the pudding but he ends up hungry. ANYWAY.. when i say no, even if its no directed at him he crys, i'll try and direct his attention else where but he soon loses interest and goes off to do something he really shouldn't i.e pulling himself up on the tv stand. he crys for no apparent reason most evenings and i have no idea what to do. my family say "well he's not like that with me!" is it something i'm doing wrong? he does hold his ears when he crys and he has had recent ear infection but im not convinced its that or he wouldn't be ok in the morning.

any CONSTRUCTIVE advice would be a godsend!

It could be his ears, He may be in some discomfort that when he is tired he is less able to deal with. As a starting point I would get his ears checked again.

He is only a baby, so doing things like pulling himself up on the tV stand is normal behaviour and, like you say, he needs distracting and ding something else with him.

is he sleeping long enough during his afternoon nap? He may be waking too early.

With his food, if he is eating half of his dinner, then having a banana, then he is doing well and as long as he is putting on weight, I wouldn't worry at all.

Have you spoken to your HV? Hopefully they will be able to give you some tips too.

forget about dinner, just start doing a dream feed at eleven pm and completely forget about him pulling himself up on the tv stand, that's completely what he should be doing given that he's eleven months old.

it sounds like pain somewhere, either teeth or ears or both (mine both rubbed ears when teething). we all feel pain worse in the night, less distraction and our bodies are getting ready to sleep so more receptive to pain (not quite how it works bu can't explain).

do you give him some calpol? he sounds lovely and normal for his age.

What time is dinner? Maybe give him his biggest meal at lunch & a smaller one in the evening. This is what I did with dd1, as she ate better during the day.

He won't know that you have stopped pudding to get him to eat his dinner, let him eat what he will & give him a healthy pudding.

My dd2 also climbs (she is 16mths) on anything, they don't understand heights, nor fear so they explore in their way!

thank you aitch, i gave him calprofen tonight, as a last resort (hate doping him up) he's just woke up, i gave him some bonjela hopefully that settles him. i give him is dinner between 5 and 6.30, his sleep can vary, could be half an hour could be 2 hours. i never go to the HV i know i should though

calprofen isn't doping him up, though, it's not like it's got a sedative, it's just pain relief. sooooo, if it relieves him then it suggests that he is in pain.

as it happens i'm a big believer in pain relief, as it was explained to me by an anaesthetist pal, the way it works is that if you move quickly on pain, you obliterate it and stop the nerve endings from jangling each other, whereas when you wait until every nerve ending is singing out in pain, it only takes the edge off.

he sounds fine, you sound fine, perhaps you just are expecting too much for his age? in faaaact, this is reminding me of a post i wrote ages ago with dd1 on here, we had the same situation i now remember. and i did as i advised you, moved teatime to four thirty at the latest or ditched it altogether, concentrated on food more at lunch and introduced a dream feed. how soon we forget...

thanks aitch i think i'll try that , i maybe am expecting too much

oh, and sandcastles, my thirteen month old JUST started climbing... she may not make it to sixteen months in one piece.

Lol aitch! Mine won't make it to 17mths at this rate!

Remember as well that they don't need as much food around the 12 month mark because their growth rate slows down. DD went through a similar phase at this age (most of the food would end up on the floor) but she's eating very well again at the moment (18 months).

I've always given her a pudding (yoghurt or fruit or something) even if she doesn't eat much of her main course.