Looking for some advice regarding my daughter who's 2.5 years old.
She always needs to be touching me, especially my ear which she grabs and pulls & taps her fingers on, wants my feet up touching her feet to which she then pushes her feet into or has her feet up pushing into my face. She also grabs, rubs, sticks fingers into my arm. She cannot sit still, always moving in some way also taps her feet on me constantly. This is mentally exhausting me as it can go on for hours, partially when trying to get her to sleep at night.
She has a pretty consistent routine of bath around 8pm and bed at 9 but can often take up to 3 hours sometimes more for her to go to sleep. There is no point trying before 9 as she is not remotely tired. The most she naps during the day is 1-1.5 hours. She has plenty of activity throughout the day as she is at nursery 2 times a week & with family the other 3 who always have her at soft play or the park.
She is up around 6.30 daily & out the house from around 7.45 until at the earliest 5pm weekdays. She does plenty of activities at weekends dancing / swimming classes, soft plays, long walks at parks but still nothing seems to tire her. She will majorly kick off when time to leave if we are at the park for example, running from me and then fighting once caught & continues whilst trying to get her into the car seat.
In car seat & seat which she can be strapped into at meal times she cannot stay still and kicks her legs the whole time.
She is a very emotional child and quite often aggressive although very kind too - only aggressive to people she feels close to; me, her dad, & her grandparents. She is very nice to other children & there has never been concerns from nursery about her being aggressive towards other children.
There is no concerns regarding her development from ourselves or nursery, she is a very bright child and a great speaker for her age - she can have a full blown conversation with you.
Meltdowns can be extreme & last upwards of 30 minutes - at home and in public. During which she is constantly screaming, hitting & biting me and her dad. She does at times show self harming behaviour such as biting herself and pulling her own hair. She does not care about getting into trouble or time out, she laughs in our faces or the aggressiveness worsens.
I am beginning to think this is more than just regular 'terrible twos'. A lot of this behaviour such as the touching has been on going for as long as i can remember.
Does this sound like typical toddler behaviour or something more? Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation and have advice any advice?