Is it too early for tantrums at 14 months?!

[wahmeh]

FTM. Baby was a colicky newborn and then that phase passed and she was very chilled and easygoing for quite a while. Now in the last few weeks she’s becoming very difficult.

if I try to change her nappy/change clothes/brush teeth/ take something away she shouldn’t have or do something that she isn’t happy with she shouldn’t have she just screams and cries and becomes absolutely hysterical.

Just now she screamed because I brushed her teeth and now she wants to hold the toothbrush and when I went to put it back it was the end of the world. She’s into absolutely everything.

I used to be able to go sit in a cafe with her now and now she gets bored immediately and wants to get on the floor which is fine; but she screams.

she is obsessed with touching our TV and throws a tantrum when I take her away (we are looking at putting this on the wall now)

I just want to know if this is normal at this stage - the last week has got worse. If it’s not one thing she’s unhappy about it’s something else, I ate an ice cream and she wanted a bit so I let her have a lick of it. I finished it and you can guess what happened next 😂

she’s still not walking yet, she’s attempted one step alone and can walk if I hold her hand but she cruises everywhere and crawls.

Yep normal. You get used to the "triggers" and can sometimes avoid them.

Eg let them have the last bite of snack so they can see there's none left. Also mine is traumatized if I put his toothbrush back in the beaker when HE wanted to put the toothbrush in the beaker.

In my experience it gets slightly better as they learn to communicate!

It's quite early. I think with my eldest it kicked in at more like 2.5m, although she was still fairly chilled and easier to negotiate with, as she was the only dc at that stage. DC2 is 15m and not had a full blown tantrum yet. She'll sometimes get frustrated but easily placated with snack bribes or a distraction toy.

Yes!!!! My DD is 15 months but has been like this for a couple of months I think. She does every single thing you mention on your list 😂

She’s ill atm and easily tired / grumpy so that makes everything worse. What’s scary is that they’re the closest thing to tantrums that they’ve experienced so far, but I know they’re not actually tantrums - the worst is yet to come 😭🤣

Yeah I’m not sure she’s having a real tantrum but she’s just very very strong willed at the moment… ahh!

Yes it's definitely possible. I tend to think of children and how tantrummy they are as a spectrum. It's lovely for parents who don't experience this until the "terrible 2s onwards" but my little boy started fairly early (I'd guess about 16m) and I'm definitely not the only one I know in this position. I think some kids just have more fiery personalities and you can kind of see this from a young age. It's really frustrating but if it helps at all not as our the norm as you might think. I also wonder if it may be some frustration. My little boy was about 15m when he started walking and I wonder if maybe your LO is getting a bit frustrated wanting to move but not quite there yet? It might be interesting to see how things progress once they've started walking!

My DD had her first at 9 months. I didn't know children that young could have them! I actually had the phone in my hand to ring the doctor because I thought there was something physically wrong with her. She's grown up now and lovely but still strong-willed...

I found baby sign quite helpful for this age, but generally being able to communicate better definitely helps. I found there is some frustration before they start walking properly too. They basically want to be able to control their surroundings/loves more. Classic give options territory.

Yes normal I'm afraid, try to avoid conflict as much as possible and distraction is definitely your friend. Can she do her own teeth? My 18 mo has never let me brush her teeth for her but she does some good biting on the toothbrush etc which I take as a win (she only has 6 teeth anyway) Tantrums definitely come in phases in this house so try and ride it out as much as you can x

200000 percent! My 11 month old does this!

She can sort of so maybe I’ll just her get on with it and that solves one of them!

distractikn helps - especially if I play some music or blow some bubbles.

the other thing that’s becoming a problem alongside this is she’s also refusing to go in her cot at night now and gets so distressed so she’s had to sleep in with me. It feels relentless at the moment :(

I could have written this myself OP! My 13 month old is exactly the same. I've just got him out the bath and dressed for bed and he screamed the house down. I was actually just saying to DH how upset I am that he gets so distressed at seemingly everything at the moment 😭 Helps a bit to know it is normal though x

Oh that's really tough I'm sorry, could she be teething? That's normally at the root of our misery! I'd defo say pick your battles and try to empower her as much as possible, it's a frustrating age for them so I think you might just have to grit your teeth (sorry)

Normally I just don't react to the tantrum itself at all and try to distract immediately, if she persists then I let her get on with it (as long as she's in a safe space). Lots of praise for good behaviour/listening to you also helps I think.

Yep normal.
I loved the easy going coffee trip stage too but thats far behind me now with my 2 year old. Now its all about messy babyccinos and fighting over biscuits.

He started this around 14 months too, its just them practicing communication skills.