Mood - Two Year Old

[SilverSabre25]

My little 2.75 year old dcg has been increasingly moody lately. Quiet and almost surly here, prone to outbursts, whining, and snapping, "Don't look at me! Don't talk to me!" at the other kids--behavior I expect from a 3.5 year old. She just plain doesn't seem happy. Any potty progress we have made has backslid completely (some of you may remember that this is the child who has been forced into training, for almost a YEAR now).

Her mom mentioned it to me last night, actually. She asked how things have been here because dcg is seeming, as dcm put it, "angry" at home. Apparently she's been having terrible tantrums and even hitting (something I've never seen here). They are at a loss for what could have changed, and I am at a loss for what could have changed. This seems like more than simple "two-ness". Twos don't go through such a total and complete personality change...she used to be sunny and happy, if a bit prone to hysterics if she thought she was the least bit in the wrong ("Scoot scoot, please, sweetie! happyface = dcg bursting into tears, for example).

Her mood has been souring soooo much over the past few months...does anyone have any ideas for how I could help her, maybe? Or something?

[bice99]

Food allergy or intolerance? I have Celiac Disease and a lot of kids get diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, anger issues, etc and when you take away the wheat (and barley, rye and oats) you have a totally different kiddo. My friend's daughter is allergic to wheat and at age 7 still loses self control and just cannot handle the day to day issues of life if she eats any. They thought maybe she had outgrown it so they started feeding it to her again. They decided that was a bad idea!

[Ariana]

This also happened to my sunny and happy 2 yr old. At around 2 yrs and 4 months I intro'd a new dcg and her personality changed overnight. Agressive, angry and completely in the "terrible two" stage. I don't think it's coincidence that this started when a new kid started but it happened with us on the weekends as well etc. Suddenly very uncooperative overall.

I went out and got a bunch of "feelings" books to help her deal with her emotions. One was called "sophie gets angry" and it helped tremendously. She is starting to understand that anger is normal and there are ways to cope with it (like blowing a pretend balloon or sitting by yourself etc). I have a whole series of "feelings" books in a series called "The Way I feel". The kids LOVE them and ask me to read them every day!!!

http://www.corneliaspelman.com/index.php/books/when_i_miss_you/

Unless there have been some major changes you may never know why she's become so angry. I think kids just feel emotions like anger in response to a lot of other emotions like sadness, frustration, feeling left out, embarassed etc. For example if her parents talk negatively about her at home she may suddenly be beginning to understand what they're saying and it makes her feel bad, or perhaps she's wanting control over things but her parents are not letting her. 2 is when they begin to develop a sense of self and independance and it can be a turbulant time for kids emotionally.