Hyper almost 4 year old daughter

My daughter is almost 4. She is always on the go. She gets hurt all the time from not slowing down. I am always telling her to calm down or slow down. I give her time outs and take toys away, but this does not seem to help. I cannot seem to keep a sitter for her. Every time she goes to a sitter after a couple weeks they tell me they can not watch her anymore because they cannot handle her. She does a lot of screaming, climbing, throws anything she can get her hands on, hurts other people, will not walk (runs everywhere), and gets into everything she possibly can. I stopped giving her naps, hoping this would take some of her energy away. It did not. It is very difficult to get her to settle down enough to get her asleep every night. Last year she pulled a 250 pound electric fireplace over on herself, crushing her face and back of her skull. She was playing in the middle of the living room, I left her with my 8 year-old son and my boyfriends 11 year-old son long enough to flip sausage I was cooking for breakfast. I heard a loud crash and the boys scream. I ran into the living room finding her pinned under the fireplace. I do not want her to keep getting hurt. When she hurt on a daily basis. I am afraid she will get hurt really bad or worse. Most of the she hurts her head or back. She will be starting preschool in August. I do not know what to do to calm her down. Please help me. Does anyone know what I can do?

[margypops]

If it is as urgent as it sounds a visit to your doctor may be in order, ,another thought does she have any outlet like a playground or a park for all this energy, do you take her out, and have you bounderies with time outs,  not a good idea to leave her alone with a couple of older children as they do like to tease younger children,If she is at day care how does she behave  is she this wild there? if not then the problem lies at home. How does your 8yeard old relate to her is he kind ,do they play togetherquietly , if they are rough housing she will emulate it, children copy and a lot of what they do is learned from others.

[MissKrystal]

My son is very well behaved. He does not like to play with her much because she is so hyper. I live right next to a park she plays there everyday weather permitting. The older children treat her very good. They do not tease her. They try to get her to play nice as they were taught. I teach her to play nice, but it does not sink in. I have tried to talk to several doctors about this, but they keep telling me she's a toddler this is how they act. Or they say there is nothing they can do about it until she is in school. I did not actually leave the boys completely alone with her there is a large window in the kitchen to the living room. Her accident happened within 10 seconds. We thought the fireplace was attached to the wall, because we put new carpet in the living room and could not move the fireplace. Rough housing is not allowed in my home. My boyfriend and I do not tolerate it.

[margypops]

Possibly then she is simply an active little girl who needs extra games and use of the energy she has, keep her busy , good she has a play ground, and very good her brother is kind to her, so many times older children like to tease each other, being well behaved isnt anything to do with children playing energetic games .and having 'Fun" Running every where is normal in a child of this age.. I agree with the Doctors if there is  no problem at home let time take care of it,its just a phase,

[MissKrystal]

What do I do about her constantly endangering herself, hurting others because she will not slow down, and not being able to keep a sitter for her because the can not handle her. This includes day care centers. She has gone to 4 different day care centers and they said she is to much for them to handle and she tends to hurt the other children as well as herself (accidentally). Therefore, they do not want to be responsible for her until she calms down and is less of a risk or danger. I am a single mom, living with my boyfriend. I cannot get a job until I get her under control. The reason I cannot get a job is because I cannot find someone to watch her while I am at work. No one wants to be cause of how hyper she is.

[chapmanmum]

Just a suggestion, take a look at her diet. My son was very hyper up until the start of last year, I took him to a pediatrition and he told me that by taking most of the artifitial colours and preservitives out of his diet and with maturity he would get better. He did. Take a look at the Sue dengates website,she also has books and DVDs out called Fed up wioth childrens behaviour, Im in Australia but Im sure you could get the info there. Its amazing on how these nasty thing we are feeding our children make them hyper, my son used to turn nasty aswell, his eyes would pop out of his head and he would turn into a different person. I found with him it wasnt so much the preservities in the food it was definately the colours. Anyway we post into Medhelp for suggestions so I just thought I would suggest it, this might not even be the case. Best of Luck!!

[MissKrystal]

Thank you for the suggestion. I very much appreciate it. I already watch my children's diets closely. I have always been very concerned about what my children eat as well as myself. May be I should pay a little closer attention to see if there are any artificial colors and preservatives I never thought much about this since I cook everything from scratch. We don not eat out, mostly because I am afraid of what is in the food and how it was prepared. I prefer to make sure my food is handled and cooked properly. Especially since it is being eaten by my children.