different child! | Imamother

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Forum -> Parenting our children -> Preschoolers

Different child!

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amother

Sun, Jan 08 2012, 12:48 pm

My 4 yo ds has suddenly transformed from a sweet, loving child to a wild, out of control, never listening to anything child. I don't know what happened. It started about a month ago. No recent changes that I can think of. Please help! Any idea why this could be happening?!?

Sun, Jan 08 2012, 9:45 pm

I think it's referred to as...being 4 Smile

there are a lot of mood swings at that age, some from hormonal changes and other from trying to find out who you are, where your place is...kind of like a teenager, but on a smaller scale.

Gam zu l'tova Smile

bradybunch

Sun, Jan 08 2012, 9:53 pm

My only advice to anybody with a kid who starts acting like this, aside from the above poster's very true IME observation that kids and mood swings go together: make sure your DS is getting plenty of sleep. He's probably not napping anymore, but make sure he gets at *least* 10 hours of sleep a night--and many kids that age need more than that. Sometimes one or two late nights can just snowball into an increasing sleep deficit and lead to outrageous behavior.

Aside from that...as yb said above, he's 4. We had some very rough times when my oldest DS was 4, too.

amother

Mon, Jan 09 2012, 9:54 pm

op here,
he has been waking up lately at 5:30 AM for the day ( Banging head

) but goes to sleep between 6:45 and 7:15 PM so he's getting 10-11 hrs of sleep. Still, maybe this is the root to the problem? You think that could be it?

bradybunch

Tue, Jan 10 2012, 9:25 pm

If his behavior is worst in the late afternoons and evenings, especially after school (if he's in school), I think the early waking is very likely the culprit. My kids go through phases of waking up super early also. I wish I had a wonderful solution, but I haven't found one yet. Sometimes it helps just to know that sleep might be part of the problem, though. Is he in bed at the same time every night?

abmom

Tue, Jan 10 2012, 10:12 pm

He might be waking up with the sun. Maybe try putting a heavier curtain on his window so his room should stay dark for longer.

MommySA

Fri, Feb 03 2012, 2:55 am

MY DS turned 4 in Dec and I have found the exact same thing!!! There are days that he is sweet and kind and listens but then other days that he doesn't listen to anything!! I try make a big fuss now when he is good and it does seem to encourage him but doesn't always work :s The worst is that he is a genuinly sweet child and when other people see him in on one of his bad days I hate that they think thats the

He sleeps from 6:30pm to 6:30am on most nights (not over the weekend then he goes to sleep 2 - 3hrs later and wakes up about 1.5 hours later so still gets at least 10 hours sleep!)

It seems like it is just an age thing - anyone tell us when it starts improving? (I have 2 kids older but with a 3.5 year gap I actually can't remember it being this bad although I'm sure it was!)

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