Hi

I have a 3 year old DD who is as sweet as pie, uses her manners majority of the time, is a great kid etc etc but can throw severe tantrums (not often, but often enough) and when she does they can last for an hour of her just screaming and been inconsolable.

Has anyone heard anything about lack of iron causing the severity of tantrums to be worse??

I asked my family GP about getting a blood test but he said the trauma of getting blood from her would be worse than the tantrum (yeah, come to my house when she is in full throws of a tantrum).

I read something some time ago in the Sunday paper but cant remember all the details.

Has anyone had the same issue and put their child on some sort of iron suppliement and found an improvement.

She is a great kids, very loving 99.9% of the time but man she can throw a tantrum!

hey, i have a 3 yr old girl and she can throw some horrid tantrums. i havent heard of tantrums being thrown due to lack of iron. my girl can be pretty well behaved but i find when there is a change in our lifestyle or something she will play up more. if anything in your lifestyle has changed there is a possibility the tantrums are from that. i have 50/50 shared custody with her father and a couple of days before she has to go back the tantrums are worse. me and my partner have tried a lot of different things to try and stop the tantrums from occuring. we have tried ignoring it. as hard as it is it works sometimes. we tried sending her to room and telling her to sit on her bed until she has stopped carrying on and she will come to the door a few minutes later and ask if she can come out and she apologises for acting the way she did and we explain to her why she was sent to her room and she will be fine for a few more hours. if you wanted more info on the iron deficiency you could always get a second opinion.
other than that i cant really help you out much.
hope this helps a bit.

Thanks for your reply.

She has her regular tantrums which we handle the same way as you do but every now and then she has these super dooper ones.

From what I can work it, it appears to be the worst when she is tired which is why I am thinking iron deficiency as this can cause tiredness and therefore, bad tantrums.

When she has the "bad ones" there is nothing we can do, we cant console her,talk to her, touch her (ie cuddle)- nothing works infact, these things only exacebate them. We try the ignore but it can go on for an hour.

I just recalled reading an article in the paper once about a mum who's son was having terrible tantrums and he ended up having an iron deficency therefore causing tiredness etc etc.

Just wondering if anyone else read the article or has had the same thing.

Jules mac....

Not sure I can answer your question about the lack of iron or not, but in regards to getting the blood test done, my DD had to have a bllod test when she was about 14 months, the dr said the same thing about it being pretty bad for the child, nit mine she watched the nurse do everything and i think it's worse for us as mums to watch. I would ask again just to ease your mind and get a blood test but i'm in Brissy and got ours done at QML, and you have to get their blood test done when there is 2 nurses there, one a nurse that deals with child but there has to be 2, well that is what i have been told.

Good luck I hope you get an answer soon

Hi Girls,
I have a 2.5 year old son who was deemed iron deficient and was given feros liquid. (Which he will no longer take). He has had 3 blood tests and every single one of them was traumatic. Not only for him, but i bawl too. They restrain the children and i think they cry more for the fact they are held down ... but if you can avoid it - i wouldn't get a blood test unless it was absolutely necessary. Theres nothing worse than being traumatised and having a needle fear like me ...

Just thought I'd add to this thread that my DD has been a bit like that. I started her on iron on thurs. It's now sat and what a different girl I have now! She is so much calmer it's great!!

I'd never heard that lack of iron could be the underlying cause behind some tantrums. Definitely going to be googling that!

My DS (3 years) Chucks some whopper tanties. The other day he threw one that went on and off for 2 hours. And it was horrible, kicking and screaming, banging himself against stuff.... But I've been told its just that age...

I have no doubt that he'd be lacking iron, he's a very fussy eater, won't eat meat other than ham, devon, sausages or chicken nuggets, and wont eat any vegies other than potato and carrot... so I don't think I need a blood test to tell me he's lacking iron.
If taking an Iron supplement can help him, I'm totally looking into it!!!
[Edited on 06/09/2009]

I went into the health food shop, and did you guys know that iron can be toxic if your child isn't deficient? Maybe before going gung ho with the iron, make sure you child is deficient because it really can hurt them if they dont have a deficiency! I want to get Keane back on the iron, but since he hasn't had a blood test in ages, i am a bit concerned. Not to mention that he wont take it anymore (FEROS liquid).

Agree with SamAndKeane, you need a proper diagnosis and should be very wary of putting kids on iron supplements without one.

Tantrums are a normal part of development, yes there may be deficiciencies that contribute to them being particularly bad but see a Dr, dont self diagnose. If they have a poor diet then work on that.

Kids can only eat what you give them, if you only give them rubbish then you cant expect they'll be healthy.

I agree, a doctor should be consulted and people should research it.

2SweetGirls,I may have taken your comment a bit personally, and I'm not in the greatest mood...BUT I dont feed my son just "rubbish", I try to give him as much healthy food as possible, but not all children r perfect, some DONT eat what u give them. I give my son brocoli, beans, different meats, carrots etc every dinner time, he'd prefer to go to bed hungry then eat it. He gets fruit throughout the day. And I AM working on his poor diet, but I'm not about to jam food down his mouth. Yes I bake chicken nuggets, and chips for him for dinner a couple of times a week after he's refused to eat the other stuff, and he gets a couple of biscuits when hubby and I have a cuppa in the arvo, Oh and 1/3 of a kitkat as a treat after grocery shopping once a week... so shoot me. Obviously u haven't had the issue of a extremely fussy eater.

And i forgot to add, DS is booked in to see the DR, I wouldn't give him anything without medical advice.
[Edited on 09/09/2009]
Edited to correct spelling
[Edited on 09/09/2009]

Hi
I have heard this, and the the same for my daughter, gp said much the same as urs tho.
I put her on incremin cause she wasnt eating very well either, this seemed to calm things down a lot...her eating picked up and I took her off it, and changed to Swisse childvite with a calming formula in it...Great. Still has the odd tantrum, they cant be perfect all the time!

My DS (3yo) is a very fussy eater and I think it is very hard to understand if you haven't been there. He will eat sandwiches/ toast and a very few fruits. For dinner I have tried everything...

from bribery with dessert which he would rather go without, go to bed with no dinner which he is happy to do, sit at the table, be served the same thing again, imagine both DH & I sitting there for over an hour encouraging him to eat one bite of a lousy carrot, letting him make the food, making faces out of the food - I even ate a bowl of ice cream in front of him because 'Mummy ate all her dinner and so she can have dessert...

The only thing he will eat for dinner pretty much is nuggets, fish fingers, chips or sandwiches - he likes the 'paper' off spinach rolls but wont eat the inside... maybe pizza with ham & cheese (no tomato sauce), sausages but not much else.

One of his favourite foods is pancakes with maple syrup so sometimes make these and sneak a banana or two in and call it dinner.

This reply is to let you know you are not alone, I am not sure how it came about and used to make all his own puree veggies when he was a baby - hoping it is just a phase and that as he gets older can be reasoned with easier!

I still try to get him to eat new things, but it is very disheartening to go to all that effort and see it be wasted. The worst is that at daycare he will eat what he is given because of the other kids, maybe when the new baby is old enough they will try to outdo each other...