Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Normal 3 year old, neurodivergence, bad parenting or something else?

26 replies

Cheepcheepcheep · 17/12/2025 18:59

I posted on the ‘kids that aren’t quelled by anger’ thread and it made me think it might be worth asking here.

I have a 3.5yo (May 22) DS who I adore. When happy/balanced, he is kind, thoughtful, enthusiastic and an utter joy. But our challenges:

  • extreme tantrums. Hitting, kicking, corpsing, shrieking and screaming. Easily happening four or five times a day. The slightest thing can set them off - even when it’s something he wants to do - for example, he wanted to come to the car this morning to help me find my travel cup. Of course you can my love - just need to put shoes on if we’re going outside. Cue screams of NOOOOOO and kicking me.
  • Thinks he has low sleep needs but he’s actually bloody knackered most of the time. Will do 10 hours on the dot (7 - 5, 7.30-5.30, 8-6). We’ve shuffled bedtimes around and it’s always bang on ten hours. Won’t nap unless we’re in the car but is so tired even a 5 min journey in the afternoon will cause him to nod off.
  • Very picky with food. As in, I’ve got probably 10 items he’ll eat (example cheese - but not if it isn’t from a block of cheddar, won’t touch a baby bel or a cheese string) He’s underweight as a result and I’m convinced it’s not helping with sleep.
  • Very loud - I know preschoolers are loud but he screams and shout and even when he’s happy he’s talking very loud. He’s under investigation for glue ear though so could explain that.
  • Just general unhappiness - he’s such a gorgeous little soul when he’s happy but that’s not much of the time.
  • We’ve had a few issues with hitting at nursery but there does seem to be a few boys who are instigating it so that’s not just him.
  • Can’t sit still for a bloody second!

Some autism concerns I can definitely rule out - he’s great with eye contact, chats to anyone - although I appreciate it’s a spectrum. My suspicions lie in the ADHD direction. My MiL says my husband was just like this as a kid - she means to reassure me but fairly sure DH is undiagnosed ADHD so that doesn’t help!

I adore this little chap but parenting him is so, so bloody hard and we’re at loggerheads most of the day. DD, his older sister, is a fairly easy kid but I feel bad for them both that there’s so much conflict.

I know it’s early to consider SEND but is it possible there’s more to this than just normal 3yo behaviour? DH and I are exhausted by it and have a lot of other stressors so it’s possible I’m not parenting well.

Any insights from parents of ND or NT kids would be gratefully received…

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Cheepcheepcheep · 17/12/2025 19:02

He’s been like this since birth btw. I used to just think he hated being a baby but now he can walk and talk and is potty trained (miracle that one - only happened a couple of months ago and I thought it never would). I hoped he’d cheer up a bit when he got bigger but he’s just so sad and angry so much of the time

OP posts:
Dozer · 17/12/2025 19:07

whatever the cause(s) it sounds hard going!

You say your H might have ADHD, if that’s the case there’s a higher chance that neurodiversity could be at play.

No harm in finding out about some parenting tactics for autism/ADHD and trying any that appeal to you. Eg you might get good tips on the food issues.

he’s always been like it, but are the tantrums new or increased? (I have a NT DC who had epic tantrums at age 3. DC is now a teen and can still struggle with temper at times!)

Hohohohohohoho2025 · 17/12/2025 19:13

Sounds more like ASD than ADHD to me. His food is very restricted, have a read up about ARFID.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

ruralwanderer · 17/12/2025 19:18

My now 6 year old was the same at 3. She had severe glue ear and was immensely frustrated as she couldn't hear properly, missed things and had a speech sound disorder that meant others struggled to understand her. She must have felt like she was living in a world where nothing made sense, poor child.

Just to reassure you - the glue ear sorted itself out without intervention. She's had an intensive 6 month programme of speech and language therapy and is well supported both by us and school and is now (mostly) an utter delight. Hopefully the same will be true of your son :)

ohpoowhatnow · 17/12/2025 19:25

That sounds really hard and I think you’re probably right with considering ADHD? A lot of those are typical toddler type behaviours but his seem to at the more extreme side of things. I’m no expert though! Hope you get somewhere!

VikaOlson · 17/12/2025 19:28

If he has glue ear, has he seen ENT? Have his adenoids and tonsils been evaluated? Does he mouth breathe or snore?
They are often linked - glue ear causes hearing issues, frustration leads to tantrums and lashing out. Enlarged adenoids can cause sleep apnoea and poor sleep/day time tiredness, enlarged tonsils can cause food issues.

Countduckula9 · 17/12/2025 19:34

Please have your DS’ iron levels checked. My 3.5 year old DS was displaying all of the same behaviours (minus tantrums) - he was so tired one day that he practically passed out while standing up, so we had his bloods done and it turns out he was very anaemic. His dr said that anaemia in toddlers can cause extreme picky eating, loss of appetite, extreme lethargy/sleepiness, irritability, sleep issues.

Most of these have resolved since we got his iron levels back up after months of supplementing.

cantbearsed27 · 17/12/2025 19:57

Sounds more like possible ASD than ADHD to me. Don't think that 'chatting to everyone' means it's not ASD, if he is completely happy chatting to some random stranger then that is also unusual for a young child. I know older kids with ASD who will stand right in your face and talk at you very loudly even if they have never met you before.

Not all kids with ASD are shy and introverted and not all are terrible with eye contact. DS has always been good with eye contact - but as he reached secondary school age I noticed that if he got anxious it tended to drop away then. Glue ear and ARFID are commonly comorbid with ASD (but of course aren't always).

Does he do long days at nursery OP? I was a SAHM and I think DS really, really benefitted from going to preschool in the morning and being able to be home in the afternoon. He started school at a time when there were staggered starts so he went half days for a while then I decided to have him home at lunchtime after a while and that also really helped him. Obviously not always possible but for DS it allowed him to cope with and so enjoy preschool and school - although this was before I even knew he was autistic.

DS was a nightmare to potty train (and wean for that matter!) so I definitely know where you're coming from there, he wasn't diagnosed till around secondary school age when the gap in emotional maturity begins to show more. Be sure to keep a note of all the things you've noticed.

You do need to come down hard on the kicking though. 'We do not kick people, you are not coming to the car unless you stop kicking me and put on your shoes' - said sternly and then follow through no matter how upset he is - even if he is autistic he needs to learn that kicking is not ok. Be that firm and clear any time he behaves like that.

Cheepcheepcheep · 17/12/2025 20:22

Thank you so much everyone for the quick responses - I can’t believe I haven’t thought to ask on here before! A few answers:

@Dozer - have done some reading on ASD/ADHD parenting but my concern is that that’s not going to help him if he’s NT if that makes any sense - if it’s just wilfulness then I feel we need to crack down a bit more rather than go the other direction if that makes sense? I sort of feel like I need to know the problem I’m trying to solve before applying a solution! It’s not really escalated as such - he’s always screeched when unhappy, which is often - I’m just noticing it more as he’s not using his words when he’s cross, which he now does have.

@Hohohohohohoho2025 and @cantbearsed27 definitely haven’t ruled out ASD, agree the food issues seem very close to ARFID but don’t think he’s quite at that level. He will take a single bite of something new if we cajole him with bribes but it brings so much unhappiness that it’s almost not worth the tantrum that follows. Or worse, he just sits and sobs about it. I just hate seeing him so sad. He does 3 half days at nursery and 2 full days. Work wise we can’t really take him out although joy of joys it’s looking like DH is being made redundant in January so we could do, but I’m worried taking him out of a formal setting will be a problem for starting school in September.

@ruralwanderer @VikaOlson the glue ear is something I’m trying to really factor in - some things I can put down to it, others I can’t. We’re seeing ENT consultant next week but if I’m honest I do think one of the reasons for this is because we won’t get anywhere with ND support until we get an answer on the glue ear. Obviously if there’s an issue there we must fix it for him but I’m not sure if it’s the cause of all his woes, though I would love it to be a magic fix.

@Countduckula9 hadnt even thought about iron levels - thank you so much! Will look into it. Can’t imagine how we’d draw blood from him to be honest (I’ve had to pin down for every jab he’s ever had) but definitely something to explore.

@cantbearsed27 the kicking/hitting (and biting, forgot to mention that joy!) is actually why I posted on the other thread and I promise, we are so bloody consistent on that one it bores me to tears. “No we don’t bite”, “no we don’t kick” and “no we don’t hit” are on repeat in our house. I just worry as it doesn’t seem to sink in. We get cross and he just laughs. I know (cf the glue ear stuff) laughing is often a scared response due to lack of comprehension but it just doesn’t seem to land.

OP posts:
HarryVanderspeigle · 17/12/2025 20:57

It all sounds completely normal in our family, but my kids are audhd, so that's not as reassuring as it sounds! He is very young though, so it might just be the toddler years. Definitely check out all of the medical things recommend above first. Perhaps a conversation with your health visitor would also be helpful. Waiting lists for everything are so long that it is good to get on them as soon as you can.

Cheepcheepcheep · 17/12/2025 21:01

HarryVanderspeigle · 17/12/2025 20:57

It all sounds completely normal in our family, but my kids are audhd, so that's not as reassuring as it sounds! He is very young though, so it might just be the toddler years. Definitely check out all of the medical things recommend above first. Perhaps a conversation with your health visitor would also be helpful. Waiting lists for everything are so long that it is good to get on them as soon as you can.

Thanks @HarryVanderspeigle - completely agree from hovering on here I want to put support in place early as possible if there are issues. I’m just worrying that I’m overthinking it if it’s normal 3 yo stuff if that makes sense! His older sister wasn’t like this by this age, but equally I know boys and girls (and kids generally!) are so different.

OP posts:
Dozer · 17/12/2025 21:07

There will be many varied opinions / ideas on parenting to cherry pick from. I doubt trying some put forward by people for parenting DC with autism / ADHD would have negative impact on DC without autism / ADHD.

Yourethebeerthief · 17/12/2025 21:09

What is corpsing?

The frequency of behaviours and everything else you’ve listed is outwith the realms of typical behaviour for his age and it sounds really tough going OP. I think it’s highly likely there’s something else going on. He could just be at the upper end of the spectrum of neurotypical behaviour, but I’ve worked with children for years and now know a lot of children around this age personally since having my own child - playgroups, nursery etc - and the only children I know with this amount going on all at once are now on the pathway to a diagnosis of something.

You’re on the ball to be questioning what’s going on and I’d talk to your health visitor about next steps.

Cheepcheepcheep · 17/12/2025 21:26

Thanks @Yourethebeerthief. What I mean by corpsing is going totally rigid/flat, not being amenable to a bended arm to put on a top or a bended knee for trousers. Just lying very flat!

I so don’t want ND for him but of course if that’s what he has then we will support him in every way. Agree HV chat should be next but I’m acutely aware until we get his hearing ticked off he won’t get any ND assessment.

I’m surrounded by his grandparents who are very “oh it’ll be hearing issues/all little boys are spirited” etc so just trying to judge what’s normal and what I need to be concerned about even at this age.

OP posts:
MyKindHiker · 17/12/2025 21:28

It’s tricky as any of these behaviours could be spirited toddler, which is why most paediatricians would likely suggest waiting a bit. Certainly ADHD not typically diagnosed before 6 as some kids grow out of it.

He does sound just like my son who it turned out is autistic. But equally my good friend’s kid was same at this age and grew out of it.

Practical suggestions for survival. (And a handhold. These years are so hard, I remember!). A therapist once told me that SEN / tricky kids is a case of breaking things down and solving one problem at a time.

  1. food. Can you do bigger portions, sneak extra calories (butter, cream) into food he does eat? Because being undernourished isn’t a good start as you point out.

  2. sleep. The sleep sounds ok actually - most 3.5 year olds don’t nap really.

  3. tantrums. Whether he is spirited or SEN if he doesn’t respond to consequences after the event, you need to pivot to trying to prevent them in the first place. Easier said than done. A professional would advise you to try and keep a log for a week of tantrums. Note what happened before (what set him off), during and after. Then try and notice patterns. It might be shoes are a pattern (my son now wears crocs). It might be certain times of day (hanger?) - honestly i would have said there was no rhyme or reason to my son’s meltdowns but actually I realised there were a few things which caused a lot of tantrums and when they were solved for (crocs, bamboo socks, not having to sit in noisy lunch hall, loads of communication about plans in advance) - the number of tantrums went down and down.

The thing is by doing this stuff you’re parenting ‘as you would’ if your boy was neurodiverse, but the same methods also work for regular kids who just struggle with conventional behaviour methods.

Another thought - speech and language therapy. You should try it. I know what you’re thinking! Your son can chat so doesn’t need it? I thought same! Actually tantrums and behaviours are a form of communication. Just a bad one. What they teach in SLT is for kids to communicate their feelings constructively and to manage their own emotions.

  1. reading: i’d suggest ‘the explosive child’. It sets out quite well that even if you were parenting terribly (and you sound lovely) you couldn’t make your child behave badly as kids pick up social cues from the wider world. If you have a differently wired kid you just need different strategies.
FuzzyWolf · 17/12/2025 21:30

Sounds more like ASC to me as well. Eye contact isn’t necessarily true - I have three autistic eye children and two can hold eye contact all day, as can I (also autistic) but staring etc can be a sign.

To help with the screaming and what sounds like sensory overload, I’d really recommend getting a sensory OT assessment carried out. If you can preempt what causes the issues or realise that certain clothes cause pain, it will make things easier.

MyKindHiker · 17/12/2025 21:34

Agreeing with @FuzzyWolf on the sensory stuff.

We also realised that a big trigger for our son was discomfort. It was years before we realised he hated labels in jumpers, so he’d take jumpers off and be cold. But he wouldn’t say he felt cold (because he didn’t want the jumper) and then would lose the plot over some perceived issue like the wrong colour plate or we couldn’t fly to the rainforest that day.

Speech and language therapy and OT helped him to express what the problem was (labels!) we sorted (easy!) number of meltdowns massively reduced as he wasn’t permanently cold and miserable.

BertieBotts · 17/12/2025 22:04

I think there are enough red flags to warrant talking to your HV although be prepared you might get fobbed off at this age.

It makes sense to rule out hearing issues and it's an easy box to check so definitely look into that.

The parenting resource I'd recommend most highly at this stage assuming you've done the usual stuff (literally any parenting book ever) is probably Conscious Discipline. They have some brilliant stuff about breathing rituals which you can incorporate into your day to day along the lines of nursery rhymes or songs with actions, then you can call back on them when the shit is hitting the fan and it's not just this annoying adult telling them to calm down and take a deep breath, because they actually enjoy doing the fun let's blow up a balloon/be a pretzel/blow out birthday candles etc.

They also have really good tips for the adults to help keep you calm. Something which really helped me to learn about is the nervous system part - this is annoyingly overdone on social media now but the basic idea, that our nervous systems are constantly looking for danger signals and will amp our bodies up closer to a fight-or-flight state is true. Young children tend to have difficulty with this because their emotional regulation is underdeveloped, and potentially ND children even more so because of sensory overload and difficulty with mismatch between the adult expectation and their ability to meet it. (AKA "demands" or Ross Greene "Unsolved Problems") - but the problem is because our threat detectors are very sensitive to the unconscious, invisible body language of another human being escalated, when a young potentially ND child is in an escalated state that tends to escalate us too and then we get more panicky, more tense, more likely to raise our voice, act physically intimidating and try to assert control, less lenient, less empathetic, more likely to forget whatever useful thing we read in the parenting book and more likely to repeat automatic phrases from our own childhood, and in the meantime you're co-escalating each other, which is a problem.

So if your child is easily escalated you will want to learn how to either cool yourself down, which you can do by understanding what they are going through so you recognise it consciously rather than reacting automatically, or by having set rehearsed actions to go through in that moment to replace the automatic responses (which is how things like "123 Magic" work) or the one which worked the best for me is to have the rehearsed action be things which mimic the body language of someone who is relaxed and not detecting any threat at all. For this the shorthand is to pretend the child is a hurt wild animal and you're trying not to spook them, so make yourself small, quiet and slow, talk very little and if you do talk, make your voice low and slow and soothing, without demands or threats. Breathe slowly, relax your shoulders and jaw and eyes. Some of this will filter back into your own body and send the signal back that there is no danger so it also keeps you calmer. This calm/body language then sort of catches on to them, giving their nervous system the message there is no threat, which is called co-regulating. (Again a term massively overused on social media, but this is what it actually means).

Anyway Conscious Discipline uses a three brain-state model to talk about this which is brilliantly helpful IMO.

They also have a lot of scripts which are actually useful for approaching situations where e.g. two children are clashing or a child is having a big reaction to something or you need to stop them doing something and they would rather not. And all their interventions are just brilliantly designed so they are easy to understand and remember IMO. There is a lot of stuff on their website but it is a bit cluttered and hard to navigate but they also have youtube, facebook and probably other things. I got some of it from listening to interviews with the founder as well.

BTW if your DH is undiagnosed ADHD, he will probably get sucked into the co-escalation extremely easily, I always used to and do much less now I am medicated but it does still take a strong conscious effort of working against it.

BertieBotts · 17/12/2025 22:23

“No we don’t bite”, “no we don’t kick” and “no we don’t hit” are on repeat in our house. I just worry as it doesn’t seem to sink in.

IME this approach doesn't really work with ADHD - if it's happening due to a dysregulated state ie he's in actual meltdown because he's gone into fight or flight then you can't really address the actual behaviour, you want to be trying to deescalate instead rather than teach about the behaviour because he won't be in a state to take it in. Janet Lansbury's "I won't let you [hit/bite/kick]" plus blocking with a very unbothered sort of response, physically separating them from the bitee, and/or immediate redirection to something like a teething ring (we still have 3 in the freezer and my younger two are 7 and 4!) or hitting inanimate objects instead are good management in the moment. If you don't know Janet Lansbury's podcast, listen to that to get a sense of the tone she uses, it helps IME.

When meltdowns are happening you need to look at what was happening just before the meltdown and where the skill/expectation gap was e.g. if he tends to hit because he doesn't have the skills to communicate and gets frustrated. Then you work on those skills just basically all the time that they are not melting down. Forget about trying to "teach" them not to melt down, it won't work. Try to encourage and teach the skills they are missing instead. I used to do a lot of sitting in between DS2 and DS3 and narrating their actions to each other because DS2 in particular has never automatically understood other people's intentions and would tend to leap to the worst conclusion and panic.

If you can get your de-escalation response sorted and in parallel, work on communication and emotional regulation then you should see those behaviours reduce massively anyway. If it doesn't actually sort them or you get the impression he is doing it because he thinks it works then I do think a very mild and predictable consequence can be helpful for absolute nos like physical violence, but I am not sure it will work at 3.5, because I find it has to be a little bit delayed in order to take the heat out of the moment, but 3yos aren't really there yet with understanding a delayed consequence. My 4yo understands/responds to time out but the older two never did - they would just leave 10000 times no matter how much you put them back, and be getting more and more escalated until it made no sense because everyone had forgotten what it was even about in the first place.

Hohohohohohoho2025 · 18/12/2025 06:30

Please stop making him distressed over food. It isn’t good for any of you.

EllieWales · 18/12/2025 06:58

I don’t have any advice but offering a hand hold. My 3 year old has been like this since just before he turned 2 and I put it down to terrible two’s but it doesn’t seem to be settling. He’s always miserable and moans about everything, doesn’t listen, has extreme tantrums, doesn’t eat and can’t sit still. His sleep has massively declined in the last 3 or so months, he wakes anywhere between 1-3 times a night and doesn’t nap so I’m putting it down to tiredness for now but am seriously starting to consider ND.

DeliciouslyBaked · 18/12/2025 07:01

Are you giving him any multivitamins, OP? I'd start with one with iron in if not - if he will drink a cup of milk, then the wellkid liquid ones can be stirred in. At least that way if he does have any vitamin or mineral deficiencies, you can start to address without stressful blood tests.

So much good advice on this thread for you, but I'd also add have a Google of the limbic leap. It happens around 4yrs and our DD was just unrecognisable in her behaviour for a few weeks as a result. It sounds like you've been worried about your DS for a longer time, but i also find it helpful to know about upcoming developmental phases as if they are layering on top of other ongoing issues, it beyond harder to separate one from another.

Devilsmommy · 18/12/2025 07:24

I've got a 3 year old who is very similar with the food. He's also non verbal and though he doesn't tantrum like yours he has mad hyper fits and bashes into everyone/thing. If you're little one has glue ear I bet that's where a lot of the issues are stemming from. And 10 foods and being able to bribe trying something new is amazing to me. Mine eats about 5 things and I can't get him to try anything 😭 all that to say, get the ears sorted and you may find behaviour gets better 😊

potentialdogowner · 18/12/2025 07:37

wow we have a 3.5 year old who sounds very similar. Particularly the sleep, tiredness, and feeling unhappy all the time. And he’s just been diagnosed with glue ear and will need gromits, and also has enlarged tonsils and adenoids. I’ve since read it can cause all sort of behaviour problems. I wouldn’t rule that out as being the cause for your little boy.

Panny87 · 23/12/2025 12:44

My son just turned 3 a few days ago and has similar issues. His tantrums are not as bad but he can definitely throw a fit if he doesn't get his way especially when tired. He eats well , really well actually, especially at the nursery, I always get commented on that. He's still very skinny though. He was very fidgety up until lately, nowadays he just seems generally tired. Also has sleeping problems. The main issue in our case is that in the past few months he's been hitting, biting pushing other kids at the nursery. It's gotten really bad like a daily occurance..I was quite perplexed by it, since he's been there for a year now and no major issues until recently. He has a new brother so some acting out is understandable but this has been next level. Anyways, at the same time he has been diagnosed with glue ear/enlarged adenoids and I suspect he has sleep apnea as well (snores, breathing stops for a few seconds while asleep, night tremors). His ENT said hearing issues can cause behavioral issues as well. I did vast amount of research and it does seem that often times glue ear/sleep apnea - usually interconnected if caused by enlarged adenoids/tonsils - can mimic ASD/ADHD symptoms. I think this a good article -
https://childmags.com.au/my-aggressive-toddler/
my son is similar though maybe not as extreme. His hitting/ biting is normally unprovoked and he knows it's bad, recently started putting things in his mouth again, and he's been a mouth breather for a long time and is constantly snotty. I also realized that he can't really hear in background noise especially children's voice. We will have his adenoids removed end on January then we'll see.

My Aggressive Toddler • CHILD Magazines

While Nicole Hall received an earful of unhelpful advice, her son’s hearing problems went undiagnosed.

https://childmags.com.au/my-aggressive-toddler