Thankyou everybody - I have just taken Kaela to an optometrist and we have discovered that her right eye was in no way as developed as her left and that glasses are required. This may have had something to do with the headaches she was experiencing.

Chris, I agree with you that sleep and food may definitely have a bearing on her behaviour.  Unfortunately my girl is one of these children that is up at the crack of dawn and goes all day non-stop! To try and get her to have a nap during the day is a major undertaking, usually I will have to lie down with her and keep her there. Discipline is a huge problem at the moment, as I am on my own with her and also have to work full-time and in a lot of situations I just don't know what course of action to take as she gets so extreme. You are right about the build up of intensity, I just try to direct things in another direction, because if I am confrontational with her she will definitely spin out of control, just like Sophinas daughter, yelling, stomping, throwing herself on the ground etc. And as Sophina wrote, getting impatient in doing something is also an issue. If Kaela decides that she can't do something because it's "too hard" - that's it! And if I push her it only makes things worse.

I read through some other messages on the board in regards to stress dosing and some of the descriptions of behaviour and physical symptons match Kaela, but I am a little hesitant to travel down this track. She is a very, very active child who will go to her absolute limit in everything she does, so maybe stress dosing is something I should consider but I just don't know. It is the change in temperament that is of most concern to me and it is beginning to cause problems within my family as they see it as me just not disciplining her properly.

Anyway I going to try an monitor her moods, get the daycare and school involved and see if there is a definite pattern to her behaviour and then go from there - where, will be the question.

Thankyou

Karen