Temper tantrums or a reason for concern with my 13.5 mo old DD - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

dream77 · 01-10-2008, 09:36 AM

Hi,
My husband left went out of town for a week on Sunday evening and my DD has been displaying very weird and intolerable behavior.
As soon as I pick her and get her home from her Daycare she starts to get very fussy. Instead of running about an doing her business or emptying drawers/cabinets and playing she just flops down on the floor and cries and it seems like temper tantrums. If I pick her and walk with her she is fine and stops crying. If I take her outside to the apartment park she is happy again.

At home she won't eat (besides her bottle) and won't play or just won't stop fussing.
Is this typical behavior for a child missing a parent ?and she is letting me know she misses her Daddy or something else?. This is nerve wracking since I don't have the energy every evening for this behavior at the same time this behaviour is very scary to me and I start to wonder if there is a medical problem.
Any experiences/suggestions that might help me attach and deal with this problem ?
thanks

KeltoKel · 01-10-2008, 12:40 PM

Really, it just sounds like she is tired. How is she sleeping at daycare?

dream77 · 01-10-2008, 02:19 PM

Actually her care giver says she is sleeping quite well at the daycare
She takes 2 naps at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm fo about an hour to 2 hours each

mcr285 · 01-10-2008, 04:22 PM

is she cutting her 1 year molars???

do you talk to her about where her daddy went?

my husband is military and is gone a lot. when my girls were younger they went through all sorts of weirdness when he was gone. what seemed to help them was talking about where daddy went, and what daddy was doing and such. and i'd let them talk to him on the phone every time he called. he's deployed now and my girls get to talk to him on the computer camera and i know that helps them a lot!

anyway, hope it gets better for ya'll!

Hope2Heal · 01-11-2008, 09:14 PM

HI

My son started doing this too when he was in daycare starting around 12 months. Someone told me to try and spend a few quality minutes as soon as you get home just one on one since it is a form of separation anxiety. They separate fine, but realize when they see you how they missed you. My son would cry hysterically if I even left the room for a second. However he separated fine at school . AS hard as it was in my busy day, coming home tired, hungry with 100 things to do, I took the advice and settled my baby in before doing anything else. ACtually after doing this for only a few days, he calmed down a lot. I think they just look for a little quality attention from us. My son is now 16 months and I took him out of daycare due to being constantly sick and getting constantly bitten. Being home all day is stressful because there are periods of the day he just wants me to play with him and read to him and nothing else will do. But usually once I play a little while he will entertain himself after that. good luck I am pretty sure this is normal behavior. Oh yeah and don't feel guilty that its because she is in daycare she is having tantrums, my son has more tantrums now that he is home.

Good luck