Kids go through many phases as they grow up. Personally I have found that 5 phrases are quite treacherous before your child is three years old. There is a lot of work required to get through these phases. You may pull your hair out and let out a muffled scream into a pillow on some of the rough days. Here are the 5 worst toddler phases your baby will go through before they turn 3.
Related: The Ultimate Diaper Bag Checklist
Always Wanting To Be Held
When babies are young, they go through a phase when they are able to move around, but they only want you to hold them. All day long. And it’s only you that they want to be held by. Your spouse or anyone else won’t do. Sometimes they also don’t want you to sit down while you’re holding them. You have to stand up while holding your baby and they won’t be put down.
There’s nothing you can do when it comes to this phase, but they are only little once and someday they won’t want to be held or snuggled. So even when it’s hard, you just have to hold them.
Throwing Food
When your baby goes through this phase it will mean lots of cleaning for you. They will throw their food if they don’t like it, they will throw their food when they’re done with it. They will throw their food for no reason at all. Food will just end up everywhere and your house will either be really clean, or really dirty.
Sometimes getting through this phase can be as easy as being done with a meal when they first throw food and they will learn not to quickly, but if you are as lucky as me to have very stubborn children, then it won’t be as simple as that. They are testing boundaries when they are in this particular phase.
Spitting Out Half Chewed Food
I don’t know why they do this. They chew up a food item, but instead of swallowing it they spit it out usually on a carpet that is hard to clean. Or just on their plate, or on the counter, the floor, their carseat, pretty much wherever. It doesn’t matter if they like the food or if they hate the food, they seem to do it for no known reason.
Usually this phase doesn’t last too long, but it’s long enough to drive you up a wall. I don’t really know how to get past this one other than waiting it out and telling your child that you expect them to eat food and not spit it out.
Screeching
This phase attacks your ears. Your child will let out blood curdling screeches that will make you cringe each time. They seem to do it as a way to warn you of something right as you are relaxing into a chair or about to take a sip of a hot beverage. It might be startling enough for you to jump out of your seat. Other times, it may be a series of screeches that last for a specific quantity of time.
It will take some sort of teaching to teach them that it is not okay to do this. But you may not be able to hear yourself think for a couple of weeks while your child learns not to do so. We vocalized our new rule and enforced it with time outs. Now screeching only happens when he’s upset about time outs or if he’s excited because a friend is over and screeching with him.
Potty Training
This is by far the worst phase your child will have to go through. Most people in America start potty training their child around 2.5 years old. There will be pee everywhere. Poop can sometimes be smeared around on walls or even consumed by your little one. It’s such an exciting time where you are on edge at all times, waiting and watching your child for any signs that they need to go.
But again, you will get through this phase eventually and poopy diapers and walls will be a thing of the past. Unlike cloth diapers, this phase doesn’t have a one size fits all fix on how to potty train your child. Check out my potty training post to see more about how our adventure with this most recent phase is going.
Related: Potty Training Struggles
Those are the worst phases I can think of. Kids take a lot of energy, but I am so blessed to get to spend every day with them. I get to see so much growth and development happen on a daily basis. It’s amazing when you see your child change from a helpless baby into a big sibling who can help with some basic tasks.
