Is anyone else's toddler seeming to regress?

[resilience101]

Perhaps regress is wrong word but our little two year old is markedly more upset over last two days. Not really tantrums (though she has a normal amount of those too!) but just face crumpling and looking really sad. She'll ask for things like the park and when we say no and explain we can't for a while she just says "oh" and looks really sad.

We can distract her fairly easily and she's quite good at independent play too but she's definitely more emotional than before.

I'm really lucky to be home with her and we're trying a bit of a routine but also not being too rigid. We are doing a few online things which hold her interest for a while and lots of play with her but she keeps asking about her friends, family, playgroups and dance lessons and is too young to understand. What's the best way to help her with this?

We go for a walk in the woods in the afternoon and she usually loves to pick up stones, sticks, feathers etc and inspect them but I'm feeling quite nervous as more people have started walking that way and I'm worried other kids will have picked them up so I'm trying to avoid that and keep hands clean without making a big fuss of it but I do still worry on what she'll be taking in mentally (same with avoided everyone we come across) I'm being as careful as possible to avoid spreading virus to others but also because I'm pregnant and worry if I don't we don't know what affect the virus could have on the baby

If anyone has any tips for making this as easy and constructive for her as possible please let me know, it feels like such an important time developmentally

This might sound like an obvious one but- Try not to get too anxious! If she’s anything like our toddler she’s likely picking up on your anxiety and mirroring it back to you, which you’re all then amplifying. We have chilled out and become more positive at home and it’s really helped everyone’s mood. That also means no news until he’s in bed, minimal phone use, lots of distracting activities. Try to rotate them, and move through different rooms in the house with activities in each. It’s as tiring for me as for DS at times but here we are. But it also helps keep a routine. I’ve never liked them but can suddenly see the benefits. There are some good Facebook groups that have sprung up full of ideas for things for kids to do too.

Don’t worry about development or over analysing right now, just help her relax and be happy and enjoy some cuddles and it will all be ok

Just try to be positive and include her in your activities and chores too. She also probably misses her friends, so if there’s any one local she can send paper aeroplanes over the fence to (obviously use your judgement and only do if both kids are healthy) or messages in windows, or FaceTime etc. If she was at nursery, do you have any photos or videos of her at nursery or her key workers that you can look at together and discuss? Same with pics of friends and family.