Help with a Child Who Is Hitting

This is normal for this age. I think they do it for a reaction and because they can't communicate their frustration. Supposidely paying attention to it makes it worse, but I always catch my son's hand and say "no hit." very firmly and then redirect him to something else. The other thing I would mention, is watch how you and others are playing with him and what he is watching on TV to see if he is unintentionally picking something up there. I say that because my 15 month old was hitting people in the face for a few weeks and then I watched my husband play his "pow pow" game where my husband takes my son's hands and play hits my husband in the face, saying "pow pow" and falling down. It gets a good laugh, but unfortunately my son doesn't realize the difference between play and real and that others may not find this "game" funny. I had my husband stop the game and it has gotten better.
Good Luck to you.

My suggestion would be, that unless he is hurting himself, ignore the "bad" behavior, but make sure to praise the good behavior. Ex. " look how nicely you are playing with your cars "

I hate to tell you this, but you can't stop it! ;-)

It's a phase that all kids go through, it's their way of expressing anger, my son just went through it, and we would just tell him "No, use your words" and we would teach him to say, "Upset, mad, hurt" whatever, and eventually, he caught on, now he's two, and we he's mad, he tells us so, he doesn't hit anymore....well at least as much now. ;-) But it's just a phase, he will grow out of it, I promise!

T.

My daughter and the Toddler I watch both went through this. I would grab their little hads before it got to me told them no and put them in a time out. It worked well with both a minute and a half is enough to stop them and then explain why they had to sit out.

When my stepson started hitting his little brother, I made him take a brief time out (just a minute or 2) while sitting on his hands. It made him think about his behavior more when he couldn't use his hands. This also worked really well for nail biting. Good luck!

The best thing that worked with my son was telling him kisses, not hits/bites/etc. It took a little bit and I still have to remind him every once in a while, but it worked.

My son did the same thing and I tried telling him NO and that's not nice and all that and it didn't work. Then when I started telling him, "ow, that hurts mommy. i'm sad." it made the difference for him. now he says sorry and kisses wherever he hurt someone. just an idea.

good luck,
J.

L.,

I have a daughter who is 20 months old and she is in a class with a lot of older kids (2 y/o) who are bigger and have more verbal skills. We see her getting more aggressive and believe that it is because she needs a way to communicate her frustration, when she doesn't have the words to do so. The words seem to be just out of her reach at this point. I have spoken to friends who work with children and they have this advice. Keep redirecting, time-out when needed, but don't say "no hit" or "no (blank)." Your baby at this point hears the "hit" part or the other behavior you want him to stop. Rephrase it in a positive..."we touch nice in our house" or something like that. We usually have her say sorry to whomever she hit. At this point in the learning curve, when we say "hey" after she hits someone, she looks at us, says "Sorry (fill in the blank)" while patting them or rubbing them. You might want to make sure he is not seeing anyone hitting in his environment (TV, etc) just to cover your bases. Otherwise, I wish you lots of patience.

S.

The wonderful "I can't tell you what I want so I will hit you" stage. I think it is out of frustration because they can't quite tell us that they don't like something, they want something or just tired and need a rest. My son was really going thru a bad stage a few months ago. I would grab his hands and tell him to calm down and show me what he wanted. He would either go the frig or his room and show me what he wanted. Now that he has picked up a few words it seems the hitting is calming down. He will still throw a temper tantrum and I just either walk away or hold his hands til he calms down.

Time out chair works good for me, just remember, not too long A minute or two is enough.

I use to put my child in time out by making them sit on the floor and also sit on their hands.