OT: My 22 month old has turned into a whining, crying baby

Are you sure he's not sick? ear infection? teething? those all push my normally pretty happy-go-lucky kid into her fussy pants. Good luck!

We took him to the Dr Thursday evening b/c he started with the whining and crying on Tuesday but the Dr couldnt find anything wrong. His ears were fine. I thought it might be his ears too.

My son is 21 months old and he is whining a lot more lately too. If there is nothing medically wrong I suspect it is his frustration with not being able to tell you what he wants. I have to sit with Ben and run through a list of things he may want and when I get to the right one he says "yeah" and then everything is all better. Your son may be speaking more than mine but that could be it.

Our DS started entering the "terrible 2's" at about 21 months. We made a few adjustments that I think helped. I realized that he was whining and having a fit everytime he needed help with something, so I taught him the word 'help', so now i hear 'elp, elp, elp' which is a much more plesant sound than whining. We also realized that he was understanding more than he was communicating, so we started telling him what was going to happen ahead of time, and it seemed to help a bit... i.e. mommy is getting dinner, and it will be ready soon. The other thing we did was to start giving him decisions to make for himself, such as 2 choices for dinner, or two choices of pajamas to change into. We also noticed that he is a very high energy little boy, who gets fussy if he does not get enough exercise, so we try to put LOTS of exercise in his routine. Those things helped us a bit, but I would not say that we have everything figured out yet. Good luck

If nothing medical is wrong, then all I can say is- THIS TOO SHALL PASS!.....Just like every stage that brings changes. Only to be met by some other problems..LOL Just kidding, Well maybe not. It sounds like terrible two's might be a little early....... Hang in there breath and before you can blink twice The -WHY's and HOW COME three's begin.....:prop: Kristi

Macon is having major issues with communication so I bet that is it. But I wonder why it started all of the sudden? He is very smart and understands what we say and can follow simple commands but he cant speak many words yet. He has been recieving speech therapy once a week for an hour for 5 months but it doesnt seem to be helping. I bet he is just frustrated and I need to try to talk to him more when he gets that way and try to figure out what he wants. You guys are great. Keep the advice coming.

Kate has been a major whiny butt for over a month.I have been carrying her constantly. It really seemed to calm her, and then her last eye tooth popped through and she is doing so much better and is even eating!

We brought Danny home just shy of his first birthday last December and started early intervention with him probably like 2 months later because of all the neglect he suffered at the hands of his foster mother. One of the many things she started working on with him at the very end was speech with him and was not getting very far but considering his age I wasn't too worried he was so far behind physically that was our main focus. Well around September (21 months) he has hit the 2s and pretty much since December has hit them full force. My daughter has never been the whiner or even the cryer he is. He could win an award for some of the crying he does. Ironically if he can point to what he wants or say it (he is much more verbal at this point than his big sister was at this point) his crying will stop quicker but he will still stop. What works the most is trying to set limits and boundaries and actually lowering the tone that I speak to him in it seems to make him calmer I know it is not always easy especially when they whine sometimes all I want to do is put myself in a permanent time out till they tire of it themselves and sometimes just holding them will work as well and remind myself this too will pass. Good luck and know you are not alone we have all been there or are currently there with you. Julie ( proud mom to a princess and a prince)

This is sooo funny --- my son who is now 2 yrs (as of Dec 18th) was horrible from about 19 months and still sometimes has days when he is impossible. I even stopped taking him shopping with me cause it was a non stop crying fit. Even if were outside playing he would cry & scream. I was beside myself cause my DD never did this. THey DR never found anything wrong and claims they get frustrated easy and can't comunicate. His crying fits would last 1-2 hrs. THe longest one was almost 4 hrs long. I would either let him go or I would sit and rock him. I never found a way of stopping his crying but I would try to comfort him. Now at 2 yrs he is growing out of it , although, he still has days. I have to make sure he gets his nap or that will set him into a terror. My suggestion -- buy a good set of ear plugs!! LOLI doesn't last forever and someday we will look back and laugh about it. HOPEFULLY!!!!

I have to say, that 18-24 months was way worse than the supposed terrible two's for my little guy. There is a great book called.... the happiest toddler on the block. When I read that this is common, I was soooo relieved to know that when he turned 2, it would probably get better and it did. Hang in there!!!! Belinda

Ava did this too around this age. Teething could have been part of it. Asserting herself was another part of it. It is so hard when you are in the middle of it. Ava is now 2.5 yrs old and she is so much better. All four of my kiddos hit a rough batch right before two and then again at four. Four is when they get crabby, sassy and whiny all at once. Good luck!!!!Vicki

Glad for this thread - I can see this just starting to happen at 20 months. My rather easygoing baby boy has figured the "just keep whining if you do not get what you want" trick. So far, its not too bad and has just be limited to when he wants to play with a specifc toy or person and we are trying to do something else but I know its going to get worse. I do think it is to some degree connected to his inability to communicate and have called to schedule an EI evaluation for him. Also, as someone else noted, his receptive language is way ahead of his expressive, and it helps to tell him what we are going to do in advance.

This is great to read - this sounds SO much like Anabel. She has always been "opinionated" shall we say, but since she turned about 20 months she's been much whinier and MUCH louder. I mean when she screams it's really eardrum-piercing. And it can be really hard to predict what's going to set her off. I am trying to find ways comfort her without sending the message that whining and screaming gets positive results, but on the other hand when whatever she wants isn't a big deal it's hard to stand my ground. VERY complicated and exhausting. I'm happy to hear it gets better!