My 1 year old daughter screams and cries almost all day long

[lilmomma8606]

Hi, I am really hoping someone can give me some advice.

I am at  my wits end right now, my daughter is now 14 months old, since she was born she has always had a tempter. But now she cries 2-3 times a night, she screams and cries throught out everyday.. I am going crazy with this. I have 2 boys and they are so good rarely cry unless there fighting over something.

Ive takin her to the dr. she hasnt gained any weight since her 6 month check so he sent her for blood work to see if something was wrong with her, tested thyroid, iron, sugar levels ect. ect. EVERYTHING came back normal. So all he could tell me was that she has night terrors.... BUT she is like this ALLLL day long....I dont know what to do anymore. Nothing dramatic has changed in our lives in case anyone was wondering. If anyone has gone throught this you will understand how stressed i am getting about this... Please help, advice or anything welcome..

 I also try to nuture her as much as possible when she is in her "crying" state but she just kick, flips and screams more i pretty much have to leave her and let her come to me..

[mamazee]

This isn't a discipline issue and I'm wondering if this would be better in Life With A Babe. But anyway, I think if she hasn't gained weight in 6 months and is crying a lot, she might just be hungry. Are you still nursing? Does she eat solids? Does she have any allergies or anything like that?

[ssh]

With the lack of weight gain she could also have allergies. With the night waking, are you co-sleeping or still night nursing? if not both of those would probably help. We found a backpack very useful at that age.

[hakeber]

Ditto to everything stated above.  Definitely get her checked out for allergies, food or environmental.  You poor thing!  You must be exhausted!

When my DD is like this (which is when her molars cut through -- just four more to go! ) she does much better in the back carrier throughout the day and nursing down to nap and sleep....but she's up every few hours.  Ice, baby aspirin, and clove oil and numbing gels worked some what, but not for the waking.

How long has it been?  DD's last set of molar lasted about 3 and half weeks.  We were all a little like this and a little like this for weeks.

I'd be much more concerned about zero weight gain for 8 months.  There has to be something going on there, or am I being silly?

[D_McG]

If she hasn't gained weight in 8 mos she would surely be admitted to the hospital? Something doesn't sound right here.

[Llyra]

How often is she being fed? Are you breastfeeding? Offering formula, solids, cow's milk? If she hasn't gained weight in eight months, and she's crying an unusual amount, I'd be suspecting she's either hungry, or she's in pain, and I'd be pursuing further medical advice ASAP. If they don't take you seriously, push for referrals to specialists, or go for a second opinion with another doctor.

[July09Mama]

I agree with the pp's that the lack of weight gain in concerning and I'd try another doctor.

Also, if your dd is having night terrors, she's probably not sleeping very well at all, which can have a huge impact on daytime behavior. I worked in childcare before having my dd, and we had a little boy with night terrors who had a lot of issues stemming from the sleep issues, although unfortunately, there's not much you can really do about it. I hope you can find something out about her health and try to get her some help! Hang in there!

[sublimeliving]

I did go through this. My daughter weighed 17 pounds at her 1 year check up. She cried all the time, and I thought it would never stop. We found out that she is allergic to soy; which is in practically everything. She is 8 now, but when I quit feeding her food that contained soy, she was a different person. I hope that helps.

[Artichokie]

i suggest checking for allergies and also taking  her to the chiropractor to check for alignment issues.

[widemouthedfrog]

Also check for celiac disease. This can cause slow/no weight gain and stomach pain.

[Tiffany Trude]

if u r still haveing problems then she might be lactose intalerant my daughter has been sense she was 2 months old shes 13 months now and we just went threw another case of it cause i switched her to reg soy milk  and she is now allergic to soy and reg milk they make a milk called almond breeze which is made from almond nuts has no milk at all in it and that works for her for now we still have a few nights where she wakes up screamin like crazy but the doctor said it could take up to a month to get all the lactose and everything else she could be allergic to out of her system depending how much of a build up she has of it all in her so if u havent found a slution i would def try switching her milk to the almond breeze its worth a try thats for sure

[Adaline'sMama]

My vote is for teeth. Have you looked in her mouth. Pretty much whenever my DD has had long periods of crying it was teeth related.

[luckiest]

My vote is gluten/wheat intolerance (or another allergy, but my money's on wheat).  It damages the gut lining and prevents absorption of nutrients, and can cause a major upset tummy.  Take her off gluten for a month, see how she does.

[angireid]

My son is allergic to dairy and wheat, if he eats either of them thats what he does. I didnt notice anything weight wise because I was looking for the reaction because I am allergic to those same things. sounds awful, good luck!

[tangledblue]

Definitely seek another medical opinion (switch pediatricans--I'm very surprised that yours is not more concerned) and see an allergist. The lack of weight gain in that time period is a HUGE red flag. My DD is a super skinny minnie who barely ate many solids in that time frame, but she still gained (on breast milk and a few solids) and stayed more or less on her low-percentile growth curve.  Not gaining at all is a real problem.

[Just1More]

I just wanted to throw out there that is *is* possible for a kid to be perfectly healthy and not gain from 6-18ish months.  That's how all of my 4 have grown.  They gain rapidly and lots and lots until 6mo, and then just hardly do at all until they are closer to 2.  They just get very mobile then, and have very high metabolisms (like dh), and though they eat a TON, they just don't gain much.  They don't seem super skinny, but they aren't in the chunky crowd at that stage.

BUT...the crying and crying.  I have finally learned (I hope!) that if the baby isn't acting normally, there is something more going on.  I was in denial for the whole first year of my 4th's life.  I didn't know she had a tongue tie that was messing up nursing and tearing me up.  I didn't know that she was hungry (because she was nursing a lot!)  But I did always say, "All this crying isn't normal.  She's a horrible nurser!" Etc.  We've been able to do a lot in the last few months to help her (mostly, solids, honestly), and I just wish I had listened to those little voices saying "Something isnt' right here." 

So, I also agree you should try some elimination diets, and a chiropractor. 

*Hugs*  I've had 2 of those fussy screaming babies, and I have to say, I'm amazed I didn't loose my mind...

[Just1More]

Just noticed this thread is 9 months old.  How's she doing OP? Are you still around?  :)

[HyperBaby]

Hi,

My son is exactly 12 months old now, I've been dealing with the same EXACT problems as you were dealing with.  They did all the blood work on him, we had to switch pediatricians because they just kept telling me he had a temper.  I know my son, and I know there is something bothering him and he just cries NON stop 24/7.  He hasn't been diagnosed 100%, but Dr's are telling me it's reflux because they cant figure out why he is behaving this way.

He's not growing out of it and meds are not helping, he even cries when being held and constantly kicks his legs.  Can you please tell me how your daughter is doing now and if she grew out of whatever she was going through?  I'm just emotionally and physically checked out.  I cant even leave my house because he cries too much.

Thank you so much in advance.

[tiqa]

My pediatrician blew off my son's nonstop crying for the first 18 months of his life.  Then I got him evaluated by the school district and he got into intensive therapy for being on the autism spectrum (even though they couldn't diagnose him).  Point isn't to scare you into saying your daughter is on the spectrum, but you might want to get a second opinion from a doctor or even call for an early intervention person to come out and see what's up.  Listen to your intuition and don't let them blow you off.

Here are my theories without knowing your daughter in person:

- Sensory issues - early intervention would be able to help diagnose this

- Teething issues - although if it has been ongoing for a while it's probably not the MAIN issue.  But it could be adding to her misery.

- Food sensitivities.  6 months is usually the time when they get solids introduced so it might have something to do with that.  Try an elimination diet (look them up on the web) and limit her foods drastically to the few safe foods they recommend, then intro new foods one at a time to see if they have any effect.  Or else you can try eliminating gluten and casein for a while - those are easier to eliminate than a full blown elimination diet and they can still have drastic differences.  (My son had a huge, measurable effect when he quit those two things.)  This you can do even without the help of a doctor.

HTH, and do keep us updated!  PM me if you ever need to vent; I've been there and I'm a good listener.  Best wishes.

[Mittsy]

Has she been tested for Celiacs? Have you tried any food elimination diets? The fact that you're saying she hasn't gained weight since the 6mo visit and is screaming and crying most of the day makes me think she may have Celiacs disease. This sounds like a medical issue to me, not a discipline issue. I would say get to the bottom of the health issues first then reass the behavior issues and go from there.