OT/3yr. old very violent at times

[connie1042]

My grandson was 3 in Jan. Mom is a teacher (Kindergarten) and Dad is a Policeman. Some days he is fine, other times he is just mean. He will say he is sorry, but I don't think he knows what that means. He will say things like, "I want to hit him," "I am going to push you down the stairs", He throws things at people. He can be just fine and the next minute he just goes off the wall! Any ideas at what we should be looking for. This just does not seem normal to me. He has been tested at school, but they thought the setting was to busy to get an accurate score, but he got 100 and should of gotten only like a 55 or so. He is going to be tested again this next week. Does anyone out there have , or know a child like this. We can use any information you have. Thanks.

 

[mrsannb]

I don't know, but my son has behavior issues when he eats food dyes. You might look up Feingold Diet and try it for a while with him to see if it makes a difference.

 

[nessz79]

We've been through stages of impulsive hitting with our youngest (who has grown out of it), but this situation seems different than yours. I don't have any advice, but I hope you get an answer so you can help him!

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I have struggled with this for a long time with my youngest son. What I've found is that if anything at all physical is bothering him that is how he expresses it. For example, when he doesn't get enough sleep (which is very often) or when he's constipated. We've been working very hard on his sleep problems and we can see a huge difference in his behavior when he's well rested.

At one point I did discuss this with our pediatrician and she referred him to a psychiatrist, his parents may want to try that route if there doesn't seem to be a physical cause. We haven't seen the psychiatrist yet, but that's a long story for another thread.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Another thing that we found helped were firm consequences. If he hits a friend he has to come home immediately and can't play with his friend the rest of the day. If he hurts someone outdoors he has to stay in. That seems to have curbed it outside of our family, unfortunately he is still violent with his siblings at times. We use time outs and when that doesn't work we put him in his bed for 5 minutes (he's 5) to separate him from the situation.