Odd behavior?

In the last couple of weeks my ds has gotten even more... particular, I guess is the word. He has always had some issues with things like food not touching, and preferring larger pieces of food but lately he has an absolute meltdown if a cracker or cookie or piece of cheese or cereal bar, or anything like that crumbles or breaks. He really flips out yelling "it broken," and "fix it mama." Then, he got a trainset for Christmas that has a track that can be put into different configurations and my dh changed up the track for him before we got home the other day and he had a total meltdown - "not go that way, put it back, don't want it like that, etc" yelled at the top of his lungs while he thrashed on the floor and even made his nose bleed from banging his head. This just doesn't seem normal and my dh is very worried but I don't even know what to start looking at for possible issues. He is very affectionate, makes eye contact, is engaged in conversations, etc. so I don't go immediately to something like autism and I have looked at sensory disorders, but he doesn't really have many of the checklist warning signs. I guess I am just wondering if anyone has any ideas of what this could be or reassurance that it is normal toddler behavior with OCD tendencies?

 

I sure hope it is normal since my girls have moments like this allllll day. The cereal bar breaks in half and you would think the world ended or the cheese string package is not opened correctly and we have a major meltdown
. I am pretty sure it is normal toddler behavior.

 

We experience similar episodes in our household. If I hand DS half a banana, he'll want the bigger piece, and not a broken one...you can check with your pedi for peace of mind, but it sounds like wonderfully normal toddler behavior to me!

 

Oh yea.... I have a 4 year old that pitches a FIT if I try to break a cookie to split between them... the banana thing too.

 

Both of our kids do that from time to time. I hear "It's broken!" and "Fix it...PLEASE!" at least three times a week. DS is more of the perfection freak as DH call it. I think it stems from wanting to have control over his world and even a small disturbance upsets him. It comes and goes so we don't worry. I think if totally melt downs start on a regular basis that a discussion with the ped should be had.

 

Yup, we have those moments here too. More with my older DS who is almost 6. Those freak outs got much less frequent by 4.

The Out of Sync Child is a good read about sensory issues. We all have them, it just depends on how much it impacts our world. With little ones they have little control and say in things (or ability to communicate calmly, in advance to avoid these problems).

Try not to worry! My oldest is thriving in school, has lots of friends and is doing well with life.

 

The other day my (almost 2 year old) twins started melting down when I broke cookie into pieces to give them each a piece..and I thought..here we go with this stage again. I remember my two older girls going through the same thing. Broken, is a BIG deal to kids this age for some reason, so that strikes me as pretty normal. I'm sure some kids have a harder time with it than others.

Also, I wanted to tell about my nephew who is now 11. When he was little, he used to take all his toy figures (like 30-40 of them) and line them up on the stairs so they would all face exactly the same angle. If you moved one, he would move it back, if you took one away when he wasn't looking, he noticed right away and would throw a fit. He also would take all the Poland Springs water bottles and line them up around the edge of the table with all the labels facing a certain way. He would go crazy if you moved one just slightly, or go back and fix the labels if they weren't right. This was at about 2 years old...maybe even 12mo. and certainly into his preschool years. He was also very sensitive about socks not feeling right, mittens not feeling right, etc. and would throw pretty stubborn temper tantrums. We were a little worried that something was wrong with him, but otherwise he seemed completely normal and really bright for his age. I am happy to tell you that he pretty much outgrew all that stuff on his own and now is a completely normal, really smart 5th grader. He is athletic and does really well in school and has nice friends, etc.

I think it is normal when we see our kids doing these things to start worrying about all the things we read about and see on tv. My mom always says that our generations has too much information!!!! And that's probably true sometimes. So hopefully it's just a phase and it might just be a part of his personality. Just keep an eye out and follow your instincts.

Shannon

 

Oh yes! From age 1.5-3 it was all about repetition and consistency. Now a little variation is ok, but nothing extreme. And the full out fit over things that seem very minor is so typical.

 

My dh started giving the kids graham crackers not broken about 3 months ago and I could honestly beat him for it! Now if they get a half of one or it breaks they throw massive fits.
My ds is very much like yours and we had him therapy for speech (not related) for 2 years and they told me it was normal to a point. If they can't be distracted from it or move on from it at some point then it is something to look into. But the behavior itself is very normal. For example my Jake can not go to the grocery store without sitting in the seat part... If I have all 3 little ones it's easier for me to stick him in the basket with his sister and the baby goes in the seat but he just won't have it. The fit lasts until he either sits in the front or we leave and then he's over it. They all said this was normal. Some kids don't go through much of this, my dd isn't like this at all but Jake sure is.
I also recommend talking to your ped, it couldn't hurt!