The house is full. Grandparents have arrived, cousins are running around, there are sweets on every table, and someone is constantly calling your child over for a hug, a photograph or a ritual. There is music playing in the background, new clothes to show off and perhaps a late-night family dinner to look forward to.

Your child seems thrilled until suddenly they aren't. 

One minute they are happily playing with their cousins; the next, they are crying because someone touched their toy. They refuse to greet a relative, don't want to sit for a photograph, scream when it is time to leave or have a full-blown meltdown over something that seems tiny.

And you are left wondering: Why today? They were having so much fun.

And with Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Dussehra and Diwali coming up, followed by wedding season, Christmas and New Year, there are plenty of days ahead filled with family, food, late nights and celebration. For children, that can mean a lot of fun, but also a lot to take in. 

According to Dr Arohi Vardhan, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Cadabams Hospitals, Bangalore, what looks like misbehaviour may reflect how much a young child is being asked to process. 

“Excitement and overstimulation can look very similar from the outside,” she explains.

A festival brings together more people, more noise, unfamiliar surroundings, new experiences and plenty of emotional excitement — all at once. For a 3- to 7-year-old whose ability to regulate emotions is still developing, that can simply become too much.

Sometimes, a meltdown can signal that a child has reached their emotional and sensory limit, even during an experience they are enjoying. 

When sleep, meals and routines get thrown off 

Festivals rarely follow the usual timetable. Bedtime gets pushed back, and naps are skipped. Meals happen later than usual, and there may be a long car journey, an unfamiliar house and one gathering after another.

None of these changes may seem significant on its own. Together, however, they can make a big difference.

“Parents may therefore see a meltdown and think, ‘Why is my child behaving like this today?’ when the real trigger may have started hours earlier with disrupted sleep or routine,” says Dr Vardhan.

A child who........

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