Temper Tantrums - No reason?

mckenya

Hi all,

 

I mostly lurk but I've had a frustrating few mornings over the last few weeks so I thought I'd see if you ladies have any ideas.

 

My 17 month old DD eats oatmeal for breakfast happily most mornings and I always prepare it the same way.  This morning (and once/twice per week) for the last few weeks, she's spent all of breakfast screaming and crying and tantruming.  Screaming NO NO NO and wailing.  I have offered her other options - my breakfast, different fruits, a drink of milk or water, I've even made new oatmeal thinking it was too hot or too cold (I don't normally plan to give her 1000 choices but since I don't know what's wrong and she can't talk much, I want to try).   When I try to remove the oatmeal (thinking that's what's wrong), she freaks out.  She actually intermittently eats it while wailing NO NO NO, etc.  The entire time, she does not gesture or point or ask for anything from her 60+ word vocabulary.  To be clear, I'm not offering these options rapid fire because I don't want to overwhelm her and I have also asked "sweetie, can you point at what you'd like" or "what is wrong? do you feel upset?" or "do you feel sick".  This went on for well over 20 minutes before I ended breakfast.  Today (unlike other days), I even withdrew from the table for 2 minutes to see if she was just overstimulated and she continued right on wailing as if I was still there (I was around the corner but out of her eyesight).

 

She is generally a happy baby and I'm just so shocked at this reaction, I don't know what to do.  I'm used to toddler displeasure for a specific reason (we have to leave the park, no you may not touch that) but to see her SOOOO upset and not asking for/doing anything to indicate what she wants or needs, I don't know what to do.

 

Finally, at my wits end, I removed the oatmeal (further wailing) and we went upstairs to get ready for the day.  I asked her if she wanted to shower with me or bathe, she wanted neither.  She continued to scream and wail and cry.  I tried to hold her and hug her, to rub her back, etc. but it  did not help and she began hitting me in the face.  I brought her lovey and closed the bathroom door so she couldn't escape and got in the shower.  After a few minutes, I peaked out and she was holding her lovey and playing contentedly.  When I asked her if she was ok, she said "Yes" and hung out for the rest of my shower.  Now it's like nothing ever happened.

 

I'm baffled.  And more than a little rattled since this has happened a couple of times (not on consecutive days, at least several days apart) and has also happened when my husband is home although always at breakfast time.

 

Can anyone suggest an explanation?  Or better yet, an approach for dealing with this?  I want to be sensitive but I also don't want this to become a thing where Mommy desperately offers you everything in sight.  Please help!  I'm trying to respond in a supportive way but without knowing what the hell is wrong, I feel like I'm out of guesses. 

 

Thanks!