What About Mood Swings In 3 Year Old?

[Ryan Mahar]

Hello. This is new to us at 1 week! I have already asked in the MD search forum about locating a Celiac specialist. My question here in the 'family' section, is ...Are the severe mood swings in my little girl normal? Is it from pain? Any reply is desperately needed for us. Thank you in advance. Ryan (dad)

[Mother of Jibril]

Welcome to the group!

Is there something specific that worries you about your daughter's moods?

The reason I ask is because my daughter is VERY dramatic. I think she has a bright future as an actress or some kind of performer Once when she was two years old she was SO mad because I wouldn't let her have popcorn out of my bowl... so she took her own bowl of popcorn, dumped it on the floor, and then stomped on the popcorn to demonstrate the depth of her anger. She can go from bawling to laughing hysterically at the drop of a hat. Maybe it's not "normal," but her personality has been like that since day one.

In all seriousness though... mental illness can develop in childhood, and it can be connected to celiac, allergies, food intolerances, other kinds of hormonal, vitamin and mineral imbalances... you should definitely ask for help if you're worried about your daughter.

[Ryan Mahar]

Thank you for the reply. Yes the concern is her very angry type attitude that randomly develops. She generally will want nothing to do with me and will only tolerate her mother assisting her. She will scream at me to leave her alone...it is very difficult to take.. I am not sure that it is becuase she has had so much trouble over the past few months that we have been trying to "give in to her needs' more than we would have with our son and she is developing a learned behaviour from this? The concern is does she go through this mood behavior becuase she is feeling pain, or is it related to something else? If I knew it was from pain, than I wouldbe a little more relaxed knowing as the celiac disease gets under control she should overall be better...but if it is from something else, such as a change in our parenting techniques...than we need help, i think???? thanks again...

[ang1e0251]

I guess as a parent of a 21 yr old who as a little girl who could get very angry, I would say the angrier & more out of control she becomes the more calm & reasonable you should be. She may well be in pain and the gluten can cause even my mood to shift but...you and your spouse should not tolerate rude or loud behavior. I would tell my daughter that I would listen to anything she had to say but she must talk to me in a respectful tone of voice and use respectful language. If she said she couldn't, then I would send her to her room until she felt she could. I would listen to anger or frustration, anything but yelling and being disrespectful was not tolerated. When she was a little older she wanted to slam her door repeatedly to demonstrate her anger, I told her if she continued I would completely remove her door. That took care of that. Sometimes she needed to go into the back yard and stomp around kicking snow or leaves to work it out. That was acceptable too. I felt if she was that dramatic & disrespectful that young, I would never be able to have any teenage discussions with her.

We have a great relationship today and she works part-time at a latch key program. She frequently calls to tell me she has talked to the children that day & ended up sounding just like me!!

[Mother of Jibril]

Your message made me smile... because that's exactly what our house is like!! My daughter does NOT want daddy unless he's doing something really fun (wrestling, having ice cream, etc...). My eight-month-old son, on the other hand, is perfectly happy with either one of us... whoever is free. I used to think there was something wrong with the way we handled our daughter as a newborn. Maybe she didn't get a chance to bond with daddy because I was with her too much? But then... when my son came along, I realized my daughter's just has a different personality. A good book I found is "Living With the Active, Alert Child." It describes my daugther to a T... it suggests that "active alerts" tend to develop a really tight bond with one parent. There's nothing you can do to prevent it... although I know it's really hard on the parent that gets left out Frankly, it's hard on the parent that's not left out too. My daughter will hardly let me out of her sight... even to take a shower.

To address your question about pain... I do think it could be playing a role. My son has a severe intolerance to casein. Once we fixed the problem (I had to cut dairy products out of my diet) he became Mr. Mellow. He can still get really upset, but 95% of the time he's a super happy, easy-going kid.

[Ryan Mahar]

  ang1e0251 said:

I guess as a parent of a 21 yr old who as a little girl who could get very angry, I would say the angrier & more out of control she becomes the more calm & reasonable you should be. She may well be in pain and the gluten can cause even my mood to shift but...you and your spouse should not tolerate rude or loud behavior. I would tell my daughter that I would listen to anything she had to say but she must talk to me in a respectful tone of voice and use respectful language. If she said she couldn't, then I would send her to her room until she felt she could. I would listen to anger or frustration, anything but yelling and being disrespectful was not tolerated. When she was a little older she wanted to slam her door repeatedly to demonstrate her anger, I told her if she continued I would completely remove her door. That took care of that. Sometimes she needed to go into the back yard and stomp around kicking snow or leaves to work it out. That was acceptable too. I felt if she was that dramatic & disrespectful that young, I would never be able to have any teenage discussions with her.

We have a great relationship today and she works part-time at a latch key program. She frequently calls to tell me she has talked to the children that day & ended up sounding just like me!!

Thank you so much for the reply... all of this helps greatly. Thank you.

[Rondar2001]

She sounds exactly like my daughter was at that age. Her reactions were completely irrational and she would change moods at the slightest thing.

Hang in there.

Since she has been gluten free, this has gotten steadily better, still not perfect but a definite improvement. One of our tipoffs that she has been glutened is that we have a week or two of a very difficult child.

[Lizz7711]

Severe mood swings, irritability, rage and tantrums, can definitely be celiac related, but not necessarily from pain. When the intestines are damaged, tiny holes are created that allow molecules to escape into the blood stream and cross the blood-brain barrier into the brain. This causes mental problems. My daughter (9 years old now), was having SO many behavioral issues before we discovered the celiac issue a year ago. Since being gluten (and dairy and soy) free for the past year, as well as being free of food dyes (regular candy is out) and MSG which also cause the behavior reactions, she is a different girl. When she gets gluten now, or the food dyes, within about an hour she reverts to the old stuff...it's very different from normal misbehavior and I can always tell it's a food issue. Then it takes 3-4 days to get back to normal. I think it took a few months to really settle down, for her to detox I guess...and now when she is glutened, still the reactions are not nearly so intense or long lasting. And it helps because instead of getting angry with her, I'm able to say ok, let's think about what you ate today, and then she calms down a bit because she knows it's not HER being bad, but that her brain is being poisoned.

I'm sure you'll see improvements as time goes on, hang in there!

Liz

  Ryan Mahar said:

Hello. This is new to us at 1 week! I have already asked in the MD search forum about locating a Celiac specialist. My question here in the 'family' section, is ...Are the severe mood swings in my little girl normal? Is it from pain? Any reply is desperately needed for us. Thank you in advance. Ryan (dad)