<5yr Old Anger and Facial Rash

[sraplayas]

DD is just about 5 years old and had a particularly bad day this week. Two huge tantrums/fits of anger in 12 hours. She became so angry that she threw up. The next morning I noticed the purple dots on her cheeks and the side of her face. Little burst blood vessels? (this has happened before when she was much younger but with less of a rash)

First, has anyone else had this happen to their child?

Second, a little history. Ever since my 3rd trimester DD has had diffculty with anger and attitude. DS is now 14 months old. DD is bringing home the behaviors of classmates (sassy, bad words, disrespectful attitude, whining). I know this normal but I am still exhasperated by it. She hits with a fist. The talking back, the "you are lying", the hitting, etc. often starts in the morning and goes all day. Although, her teachers say she does well in school and (except for one day) she has gets along well with her classmates.

It saddens me so. We are a baby-wearing, gentle discipline (or try!), prayerful, cloth diapers, organic food, no TV/low computer family. She was breastfed exclusively until she was 13mos and weaned herself at 3.5yrs--since the middle of my 3rd trimester.

Sometimes I wonder if there is something in her diet that would help or that is causing a problem. I try to bring her a snack for on the way home from school and she always has a good breakfast. I bake homemade sweets so that for the most part she is eating wholesome sweets vs. the other junk. But, maybe there is something that I am missing?

We tried homeopathy and it did seem to help somewhat. (We see a very good HD here in MX who gave her a remedy that lasted 2+ months).

Thanks for reading my thoughts and if you have any, I'd love to hear them!
Sraplayas

[Just1More]

Well, I would go back to the time when it started and look for common ground. That may give you a clue as to the root of the issue.

You mention that is the same time she weaned. Do you think she harbors any anger about that? Is it worth a conversation with her? Does she even remember?

Did she go to preschool? Did your parenting change? Did dh take over more since she was nursing less? Is she acting this way for a reaction? Does she get it?

[sraplayas]

Thank you for the thoughtful questions.

We do talk about when she nursed and when she stopped nursing. I was pretty low on milk and she says that she sucked but there was no milk. I will talk with her some more about this.

She started Kinder1 when I was pregnant with DS (2nd tri). We are expats and the school for her first year was 50-50 (spanish-english). Although she was exposed to 100% spanish outside the home, she was of course at home quite a bit and we speak 90% english at home. This year she is in a monolingual (Spanish) school and she is doing great with the language, so her teachers tell me. Also, DH began working a 2nd job/more hours one month after she started school. So yes, there are a variety of factors that could be contributing.

As far a my parenting methods, I am not so sure that they have changed. I definitely struggle with being truly gentle and not threatening now (in the heat of the moment). So I am being stretched but I am still striving for the same AP style for certain. But I´ll definitely look into that more also...