Terrible Two/Three Support

[shoppixe]

Any mommies going through this now?
I'm really at my wits end.
My girls antics:
1. Brushing teeth is a no-no, refuses. We force brush her after trying different brushes, different toothpaste. We tried brushing together, let her brush for us...
2. Bathing is off and on good...
When she's sick she refuses bathing. And after her bout of sickness it takes a long time to get her comfortable with bathing. Force bathing her is very difficult, but we just tahan and do it. Not to mention a bit dangerous, we might slip. And we r worried this puts her off bathing even more.
When she's sick, she goes without bathing for 2-3days... We dry to wipe her body. Hair totally nvr wash...
I tried:
freezing toys and put in her bath, worked for 3baths.
Make bubble bath and play bubbles in the bathroom, worked for 5 baths.
I made entire bathroom filled with bubbles to coax her to go to the toilet, she didn't even make it pass the toilet door...

3. Doesn't let ppl wipe her nose when is running... Throws a big fit.

4. When sick, this is when living hell descends... She force pukes her medication.
Tried:
Mix in milk, she rejects it straight away, not sure how she so Li hai can taste it. I even tried mixing 1ml only...
Mix in yakult
Mix in ribena
Mix in yogurt drink
Mix in ice cream
Seriously I dunno what else I can mix le.
In the end we just force her to eat via syringe and wish for the best that some of it makes it down her throat...
Even taking temperature via ear thermometer when she buay song she throws a fit.
She Insisits on being carried everywhere. My arms and wrists are hurting but if I dun carry her fit disrupts the whole household.

These are just some... Worse, I live w my parents... Sometimes they pass comments like she's such a terrible kid. So horrible... Why you teach u till liddat.

Sometimes I just wanna give up... My friends and colleagues tells me just hang in. It will pass. I guess I'm just looking for support here. Nobody to tell this too... Nobody really understands.
I'm so tired...

Now with a new born that I'm nursing, it disrupts the schedule.
I nurse my new born only at night, day time fight to find time to express.
End up everyday sleep 3hrs or less. And sleep is not good quality...

 

[novitahandoko]

Hugs mommy, really feel you. Terrible 2/3 never easy, whats to say ? Its only a phase. My 2.5 yo son also like that. Thanks God he very rare get sick, so far i mix his medicine with pediasure and serve it cold so its sweet and cold, cannot tell too much. And next few months my newborn will come soon so preparing myself to sleep less also. My son dont wanna eat at all, everytime meal time is a big challange for me and at night he also cant sleep well due to his eczema. So you are not alone mommy..yes we need support and encourage from other mommies here. Just take a deep breathe and repeat many times that it will pass ..

 

[shoppixe]

I tried cold milk too... Doesn't work. I must have given birth to a blood hound, slight difference in taste can smell one...
She doesn't fall sick that often but once it happens say every 6mths it's living hell...
Now due to sickness and I think some level of jealousy, she clings onto me full time In the day. Carry, play etc all me. I had C-sect last month, everytime I exert to Carry her, there's blood discharge. Also nothing I can do. Tried to explain tell her to walk to no avail. Dun think she understands... Only after she sleeps I nurse my new born... My helper cares for my newborn in the day. I also feel bad that I'm not there for her.
I feel so bad some times I wonder I shld have Stick to one child.
I start to doubt my ability as a parent and think I'm a horrid one like what my parents say...
Im trying to keep my act together and tell myself it will all pass too. But it's hard.

 

[lynzie]

My 46 mo still refuses to brush his teeth till e few front teeth r decaying. Just hoping they will drop off soon. As for meds, mixing dun work so we force-feed with syringe. Imagine 2 adults struggling to hold down a toddler just to give meds n he's soo strong despite e petite build, whatever he managed to swallow is good enuf for me. Hang in there mummy.. E phase will pass.

 

[shoppixe]

Hugs mommy, really feel you. Terrible 2/3 never easy, whats to say ? Its only a phase. My 2.5 yo son also like that. Thanks God he very rare get sick, so far i mix his medicine with pediasure and serve it cold so its sweet and cold, cannot tell too much. And next few months my newborn will come soon so preparing myself to sleep less also. My son dont wanna eat at all, everytime meal time is a big challange for me and at night he also cant sleep well due to his eczema. So you are not alone mommy..yes we need support and encourage from other mommies here. Just take a deep breathe and repeat many times that it will pass ..

Skin conditions can be difficult too, i feel you. They are also too young to understand why cannot scratch...
I am breathing in hard and slowly as these moments come up.
Jia you on the new born!!! I still l don't understand why people say 2 years age gap is good.... one hand i have a difficult toddler, another hand i am caring for a newborn. DD is often jealous of mei mei and sometimes acting up because of the "competition".

My 46 mo still refuses to brush his teeth till e few front teeth r decaying. Just hoping they will drop off soon. As for meds, mixing dun work so we force-feed with syringe. Imagine 2 adults struggling to hold down a toddler just to give meds n he's soo strong despite e petite build, whatever he managed to swallow is good enuf for me. Hang in there mummy.. E phase will pass.

I recently found a chocolate flavoured toothpaste - Tanners Tasty Paste. Going to give that a shot. Hope it works...
DD doesnt reject toothbrush, we managed to get her to "brush" her teeth without toothpaste. I tried so many different flavours, nothing works. Every morning is a wrestling match.

 

[frog]

I sight this example as to how to cope with 2yo:

Recently, mine had a tummy flu - so, what she wanted was milk, lots of water, soya milk, biscuits, snacks etc etc and she really wanted it because she was hungry. And of course, there was no choice but to let her win and eat and wait with the bucket to collect her vomit. Finally, I said to her... there's naughty germs in the tummy. The tummy is very upset. The tummy say "I dun want milk. I throw! (vomit). I dun want to eat biscuit!! I throw!... So she told me, why, mama, why? But I really want!! I want!!... So I told her, but the tummy is very upset. The tummy dun want. So the tummy will throw. The mouth wants, correct? How about this. We try to eat some plain porridge with Bovril. Let's see if the tummy wants it? Let's see if the tummy is happy?

So we tried, the 3-5 spoonfuls of porridge... Okay, no vomit. then later on I told her, so you see, the tummy is not upset with the porridge. should we eat more porridge? Let the tummy be happy and have some energy to fight the naughty germs? So, Okay... not much drama... Porridge for one day and tummy flu went away.

In summary, they are starting to see reason, and cause and effect. And they understand promises, and rewards. They also want to make choices and have their own opinion. Explaining the reason, the why, and the consequences seems to work. I.e. "Oh, no... what a smelly baby! Should we wash up so that the baby smells good? After shower we can watch TV! Smelly babies cannot sit on the couch and watch TV, correct?"

 

[frog]

My 46 mo still refuses to brush his teeth till e few front teeth r decaying. Just hoping they will drop off soon. As for meds, mixing dun work so we force-feed with syringe. Imagine 2 adults struggling to hold down a toddler just to give meds n he's soo strong despite e petite build, whatever he managed to swallow is good enuf for me. Hang in there mummy.. E phase will pass.

I suggest you bring him to see a friendly dentist. They will show the importance of having clean teeth, and how rotten teach looks like, etc. It helps that they see the reason for what they are doing. Also try electric toothbrush. And sing a song? This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth...

Without good dental hygiene, fallen teeth will be the beginning of more problems.

 

[shoppixe]

I sight this example as to how to cope with 2yo:

Recently, mine had a tummy flu - so, what she wanted was milk, lots of water, soya milk, biscuits, snacks etc etc and she really wanted it because she was hungry. And of course, there was no choice but to let her win and eat and wait with the bucket to collect her vomit. Finally, I said to her... there's naughty germs in the tummy. The tummy is very upset. The tummy say "I dun want milk. I throw! (vomit). I dun want to eat biscuit!! I throw!... So she told me, why, mama, why? But I really want!! I want!!... So I told her, but the tummy is very upset. The tummy dun want. So the tummy will throw. The mouth wants, correct? How about this. We try to eat some plain porridge with Bovril. Let's see if the tummy wants it? Let's see if the tummy is happy?

So we tried, the 3-5 spoonfuls of porridge... Okay, no vomit. then later on I told her, so you see, the tummy is not upset with the porridge. should we eat more porridge? Let the tummy be happy and have some energy to fight the naughty germs? So, Okay... not much drama... Porridge for one day and tummy flu went away.

In summary, they are starting to see reason, and cause and effect. And they understand promises, and rewards. They also want to make choices and have their own opinion. Explaining the reason, the why, and the consequences seems to work. I.e. "Oh, no... what a smelly baby! Should we wash up so that the baby smells good? After shower we can watch TV! Smelly babies cannot sit on the couch and watch TV, correct?"

Bathing got better we did a few things, I made a water wall in the bathroom. So it's not bath time it's play time.
Then we always made a basin of bubbles, we let her put her shower foam inside. Then we shake to make a lot of bubbles.
So now bath is disguised as "do u wan to play BIG bubbles?"
The smelly talk, the itchy body talk, ants will come bite u talk (we even caught 1 ant to "plant" on her) did not work. What I've come I realized with DD, deterrent doesn't work very well. Eat soft dun eat hard type.

I also dropped the number of baths to 2 instead of 3 a day. Less drama and more receptive.

She knows a bit abt cause and effect but she has this streak to shut it off and ignore deliberately.

Brushing teeth is still a challenge...