My Crying and Clingy AJ.

Let me tell you, it's all about them testing boundaries and seeing how far you will go to apeese them. When my daughter hit that age, she did the same thing, she was very sensitive, so clingy and whiney but only for me. She'll be turning three in a month and she still pulls stuff like that...cries for something, I'll give in and give it to her and then she cries because she doesn't want it, then crying again because she doesn't want me to take it away. It's infuriating and it's all about them testing you and searching for the boundaries that you will let them cross.
They are smarter than you think and as mothers, it is very hard not to give our babies what they seem to so desperately need at the time. But you have to be strong and ignore the attempts for attention. If you give them what they are crying for, it will only enforce the whiney behavior.
Try to divert his attention, or ignore him when he's acting out and don't open that door or give him that toy. Once you do, he's won and he will do it even more. If you're somewhere like the class where you can't just ignore him and let him cry all over the place, take him to the car or outside and sit there with him while he cries. If he likes to be in the class, he'll soon learn that crying takes him away and being good lets him stay.
Make sure to praise him and give him tons of attention when he's not acting out, reinforce the possitive, ignore the negative. It is easier said than done, for sure. It's hard to do and will take a lot of time to break the habbits, but it works. He'll grow out of it, just stand your ground. I feel for you, big time. I hope it all works out.

Hi!
Your story is so familar! Welcome to the start of terrible two's! My daughter is nineteen months old and is all about mommy. When she turned 13 months old she went through "Stranger Anxiety". People could not even come up to her in her stroller without her screaming that they touched her or talked to her. She slowly grew out of it. Some children go through it early and some go through it later. It is completely normal. THe way I got my daughter out of it was continually going to large play groups(Gymboree play and music) until she finally opened up to new people. It was hard and most of the classes we sat in the corner, but then one day she just decided to join. As for following, My daughter follows me everywhere. She has those same tantrums. I have learned that if you give the tantrum more attention it gets worse. When she throws a fit I sit her in the middle of the living room and tell her when she is ready to talk to tell me without crying. Usually she will cry for another 10 to 15 minutes and then she just magically gets over it. AIf she follows me crying I calmly say the same thing giving her no more attention then I would if she was not crying. At 18 months they are just starting to get there words out but they know most everything they want even if they can not say it. They get very frustrated easily. As you know when you are mad or frustrated you hate when people get in your face and try offering you everything. Usually you just need a moment to yourself to get it out. The same goes for them. On to the bathroom problem, I bought my daughter a potty and a book rack for the bathroom. So now when I use the restroom I let her sit on her potty and look at books instead of closing her out. She needs to learn to start using the potty anyways so why not start by getting her to sit on it. I don't always take her diaper off but I always tell her we are going pee pee in the potty. It is okay to baby and comfort them when they get hurt so don't think you ruined it for yourself. Just don't baby him when he throws a tantrum because it makes the tantrum worse. Good luck and I hope I gave you some good ideas.

My daughter went thru the exact same thing at 18 months. I was beside myself wondering what I'd done to make her so depedent and whiny. Now that we're on the other side of it all I realize what it actually was. She didn't have much speech at the time and felt like she couldn't make her needs known. My advice would be to give him nonverbal choices as much as you can (hold up two things and let him choose) and talk, talk, talk to him. He'll soon have the vocabulary to tell you what he wants and feel more indepedent. Hope this helps!

Hey! I am a mother of 3 grown girls, and I know how difficult it can be when you have a clingy baby! Sounds like little AJ is very demanding right now. Don't feel so guilty about when he hurt his head, because I don't think that is really what is wrong. I think it is because he knows he has a devoted audience who will cater to him right now and basically right now, he seems like the puppeteer! I know it kills you to hear him cry, but when you always give in to his demands, he will only increase them. I had the same thing happen to me with my youngest daughter when she was that age and I just had to ignore her. Sure, she cried a LOT, but she eventually realized after a couple of times that she was not going to get her way so she quit. Letting her know that negative behavior was unacceptable and praising her when there was positive behavior with lots of hugs and kisses is the thing I found to help the most. I do wish you the best of luck! Let me know how little AJ is doing and just remember that whatever you do , Mom, YOU are still the loving MOM that you are right now! Good luck!

Sometimes kids go through stages, but usually something will trigger that. I remember when my second son was born, my first son was 3 years old, and he changed drastically. He went from the calm confident child to a needy, crying, and insecure. I began to spend more time with him, one on one, and talking to him in order to regain that confidence. It took time, but was finally acheived. I would look into his daycare, has anything happened there? Is he afraid of something? An 18 month old can't express very well and his behavior is a way of expressing, hey, something is wrong and I'm scared. Be patience and make sure he is okay at the daycare, or if any incidents have taken place there which they haven't told you. Also try to spend 1 on 1 with him, for reassurance. Yes, it may be a stage, but any drastic change should be looked into. Good luck.

It sounds like the terrible twos, I've been dealing with them from my 18 month old too. It looks like you have already gotten a lot of good advice so I want to just add two little bits. One is that you may want to watch out for teething because even though it is like terrible twos if he is teething it could make it even more difficult and frustrating for him and you. The other thing is that something on the temper tantrums is he will continue them but you will probably find that if you give in to the tantrums they will happen more. If its something like going to bathroom, if you can just leave the door open so that there is no tantrum in the first place and he doesn't see it as getting his way, or like another mother suggest get a potty where he can sit and read books while you go. On other things that aren't so easy, like you take him away from an activity and he gets upset, don't give into it because he will decide that that is the proper way to get his way. What you can do is set him down, tell him that he needs to get control of himself and once he has done that you will talk and play with him somemore. Place him somewhere he can do as little harm to himself as possible. Let him get over the frustration then sit down and talk to him. Try to give him words for what he is feeling. I've been teaching my son some simple sign language words like please and thank you. They are words that will take a while for him to learn to say but he is already learning to tell me he wants food please, even though he doesn't have all the spoken words for it. Just make sure you reinforce the sign language with your spoken names for the signs. I wish you the best.

Your sons behavior could be a lot of things but first, get him evaluated. Make sure noting is wrong medically before assuming anything. I am a daycare provider. Make sure that he is getting enough attention in his. Check the numbers. If he is not getting enough stimulating attention at daycare, he will try to get as much as he can from you.

You introduce yourself as a single parent. When did you and your husband split. Has your ex abandoned him. Kids do go through changes but the sudden change in behavior would bother me. Start thinking about current changes.