17 Reasons A Child Has Mood Swings

#5 Over Parenting 

A trend toward what I call “bubble wrap parenting” or a lack of autonomy parenting is creating generations of children who don't know how to manage uncomfortable sensations and frustration. Kids need to experience failures and learn how to manage all those emotions and gain skills from those failures. 

#6 Mood Disorder

Kids with mood disorders often have a history of frequent and long tantrums that they are poor to recover from. Some children have a history of rigid behaviors. mood swings and tantrums as babies and toddlers and others develop those issues as demands increase.

#7 Anxiety and Stress

Let's face it, kids today are experiencing an unprecedented level of stress and anxiety. With that, anxiety disorders are increasing. The average age of onset for an anxiety disorder is age six and these children can be overly sensitive and easily upset. The roller coaster of emotions they experience are hard on kids and parents and really a shame builder for kids.

#8 Learning Disability

The brains of children and teens with learning disabilities have to work really hard to process even everyday information. When the brain has to overwork, it goes into a “rev state” and that means the brain is at maximum capacity, so managing everyday life can result in cranky and moody behaviors. 

#9 Sensory Processing 

When a person has difficulty modulating sensory information (taste, touch, smell, sound, sight), the nervous system becomes dysregulated and you have little bandwidth for frustrations or anything that makes you uncomfortable. Sensory overload is something that many kids experience but when it becomes something that rules their life (and yours too!) then kids become moody and behaviorally dysregulated. 

#10 ADHD

Children and teens with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have a hard time putting on the breaks and that means they can easily be startled, upset and angered. Poor transitions from a preferred task to a low interest task tends to be one the biggest triggers. It can take 10 times as long to cajole an irritated and negative kid to do a task then actually completing a task. 

#11 Poor Executive Functioning

When you struggle with planning and prioritizing for a future event and don't have a sense of time or strong listening skills, that means you are always behind and someone is “nagging” you to get everything done. That is a whole lot of friction and means your kid and you are arguing and could be moody as a result.

#12 Head Injury or Birth Trauma

Children who have a history of early birth trauma often come out with sleep difficulties and problems self-regulating right out of the gate. They can be easily set off, experience anger and upset, have a hard time regulating their emotions, behaviors, and sensory input. If you think your child is struggling with a head injury, always speak to your child's pediatrician. 

#13 Autism

The child with autism has a brain that typically has hypercommunication in their brain waves that makes their brain and behavior more inflexible. This lack of brain flexibility makes dealing with regular life stressors extremely challenging for the child and their family and is why these children and adults can get easily upset. 

#14 Inflamed Brain

Chronic inflammation is on the rise even in our kids and studies show that inflammation is tied to anxiety, mood disorder, autism, PANS/PANDAS, OCD and other mental health conditions. When your brain is inflamed, it can effect one's cognition, behavior, attention, and psychological health. Mood dysregulation, whether one is an internalizer or externalizer, can strain relationships and make a person feel shameful about their behavior. 

#15 Infectious Disease

Infectious diseases such as lyme, tick borne illness, Epstein-Barr, and COVID can cause an inflamed brain that leads to mood-related issues, rage, anger and other issues that affect one's ability to regulate emotions and behavior.

#16 Trauma

Whether early developmental trauma or a single traumatic event that has happened in one's life, these traumas can bury in one's subconscious. Those traumas run in the background of one's mind and cause the nervous system to activate, which can result in agitation, mood swings and irritability.