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By Jan Murray

There are FIVE key parenting skills that I have found will produce a toddler who will drive you crazy. If you are the parent of an enthusiastic toddler and you haven’t worked out what these are yet, read on.

There are habits and daily practices that aggravate a toddler’s behaviour and ones that will calm. I will share with you five sure ways to encourage a tantrum throwing, stubborn and argumentative toddler who generally sleeps poorly. Many toddlers are already like this but in case you feel like you are missing out on the excitement here is what you can do:

1. Let your toddler dictate when they eat and sleep every day.

Toddlers have bounds of energy and are keen to investigate how objects work and how adults and children react to things that they do. Have you noticed a toddler doing something, then immediately turns to see what reaction they created? With this behaviour they haven’t got time or they forget about eating and they certainly can’t spare the time to sleep. Your toddler’s on off switch malfunctions as you go about your daily business. Toddlers are forced to eat and sleep when their bodies won’t allow them to go on any further. A poorly balanced and fluctuating metabolism is a great way to encourage tantrums and argumentative behaviour.

2. Let your toddler graze on as much packaged and processed foods laced with additives and refined sugar as possible.

Allow your toddler free range of the fridge and pantry. Make sure it is stacked with packaged and convenience foods. After all, these foods are much easier and quicker to prepare, pack for outings and they keep fresher for longer which saves you time going out food shopping. Allowing them to graze constantly reduces the mess at meal times because they are generally not hungry. However, a diet like this means they will probably be constipated or could even be the opposite with diarrhoea depending on how well they tolerate the sugar content.

3. Have minimal outside play and let your toddler watch TV while you are busy doing what you need and want to do for a lot of the day.

Toddlers learn by exposure to things they can see, touch, feel, smell, taste and hear and television certainly offers two of those senses. Back yards are often too much work to look after and it is much easier to keep your toddler clean when they watch television. They can just snack while they sit mesmerized at the screen which means at least they eat. This way you can avoid the mess and fussiness at mealtimes. After all the conversation around the family meal table is rapidly being replaced by the input of television shows when they get older anyway.

4. Fill your toddler’s day with lots of outings, car trips and stroller rides leaving them little time to explore the world and all it has to offer at their pace.

Keeping your toddler busy with lots of outings is a great way to avoid messing up the house with toys. Confining them in strollers and car seats keeps them under control. This way there is no chance of having them run off and get into any mischief.

5. At the end of the day let your toddler dose on the lounge in front of the television while you prepare dinner.

Give them a main meal of meat and vegetables and fruit or ice cream for dessert about 7pm when you have yours. When they refuse to eat much allow them to get down and go back to the television until they decide they want to go to bed about 10pm. This ensures a reduced amount of sleep every night which ultimately leaves them chronically tired. You hope by putting them to bed at this later hour will allow them to wake later in the morning.

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Naturally, like most things, there are acceptations to everything but generally speaking you can be assured of an exhilarating, frenetic and exhausting ride of life with your toddler by doing these things that I have suggested.

 This article was brought to you by Jan Murray, Private Child Health Consultant who is an internationally renowned expert in her field. Jan encourages parents in the area of infant sleep, nutrition, activities and family balance. She publishes regular ezine and blog articles to provide free parenting tips, tools and resources to educate and support those caring for young babies and children. For more online resources visit http://www.settlepetal.com