Im going to repeat some advice I thought may help another member with children with behaviour issues. I hope this may help you, just realise you are not alone and you will get though it. Hopefully with some of the advice already given, my advice and support from family and friends you will not only survive but enjoy your children.

I have a son who at times is hyper and angry, mood swings etc. I know that his behaviour is related to his diet.

Any food colours should be completely eliminated from your childrens diets so should any flavour enhancers (msg). At the very least. Do not give the children any fizzy drinks, cordials, flavoured milks. Try and stick to home cooked (no take away) meals with water, pure juice, and plain milk.

IRoutines are also vital in managing busy kids and games that are physical with set rules and boundries also help. Some of these children just react to chaos more quickly so need a very structured calm life style.

An excellent site providing great information in relation to food is http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/  

Take a look at this site it provides fantastic info on the affects of food additives and the impact they have on behaviour of our children.

Hi there, You sound like you are not happy at all.  Sounds like you may have Foxtel if you watch maury... I have found a show called Nanny 911 on there and they have ideas as well as Supernanny.  My friend got an idea off of Malcolm in the middle and that is to stand facing the wall with hands on head for say 5 minutes and everytime they complain a minute is added and her kids quickly found the wall boring and started to behave better.  I know its hard and I wouldn't want to do it but you can ring child services i'm pretty sure to get a break from the kids... It really sounds like you are very unhappy and thats not good.  I have been depressed too and its very hard as I am one not to take tablets so I have tried to ride it out and at the moment I am ok.  Please if you need to talk to someone do it.  Take care and all the best.

Nikki xx

Welcome to the chaos of having kids so close in age.  I have the same in age as yours, 5,4,2 but add 1 and almost cooked to the list too.

My partner and I have household responsibilities each.  He the kitchen and cooking, me the laundry.  The rest gets done when we get to it.  You could try this in your home.

We also don't give in to our kids demands.  If they push things too far, they get sent to the timeout corner.  All your children are old enough to try this now.  Ignore the tantrums and just keep putting them there until they start behaving how you want them to behave.

I'm guessing with your 5 year old she is in school by now.  Yeah, we got miss bossy britches here too.  She is an angel at school, but at home, well, lets just say the halo slips and she thinks the is the boss.  She is the one who spends the most time in the corner, but still isn't getting the message.

ADD and ADHD are too readily diagnosed these days.  Drs just go with what you are saying without really assessing the child properly.  I had a friend who's parents just took her to the dr and demanded she be put on medication.  She was worse on the meds than off it, so didn't need them at all.

These disorders are characterised by lack of attention to anything.  That is, they can't focus on a task for more than a few minutes at a time.  ADHD includes the child not being able to sit still, and I have heard that children with this will sleep fidget too.

Thankfully for us, ours don't have either, though they are pretty boisterous and highly energetic, but they focus on tasks and learn new things very quickly.

Your oldest needs to learn to do things for herself.  If she doesn't start taking some responsibility now, then she will be a very difficult teen to deal with.  Try getting her to make her bed, put her dirty washing in the basket, and other simple tasks.  Create a rewards chart where she earns toys, books or other special rewards.  This should help her with goal setting too.

I do have to ask about your relationship with your husband.  If things aren't good between the two of you, then this is going to have a big impact on the way your children behave and the way they form friendships too.  A marriage takes work from both partners, not just the wife, so you both might need to work on it together, getting marriage counselling to help you along.

The thing is consistancy. You need to pick a punishment and stick to it. Often people say "this isn't working" and give up (which I believe is what you have done since I doubt they are sitting in their rooms right now with nothing but a bed).

If you are going to take things away, do it with meaning. Take the gaming consol, then take the dvd player, then take the tv, then take their toys, then take their art activities and leave them sitting in their room with nothing but a bed to entertain them. Do not give it back when they scream and whinge, send them back to their room, and again when they come out and again when they continue to come out making your life hell. It will be hard but they only got this way because they have been allowed to behave like they are. When they can show you some respect and behave in a resonable manner then you should allow them something back, one thing at a time when they earn them back.

See if you can borrow some super nanny dvd's and watch them with your partner. A lot of people didn't agree with her methods but at the end of the day she had taught the parents how to control their children.

I am not blaming you either. It usually starts off that you just can't be bothered dealing with the bad behaviour at the time and gets worse and worse until the parents just don't know what to do anymore (which sounds like the situation you are in).