My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

My 1yo and slapping/pinching me - any tips ?

4 replies

AlexanderPandasmum · 16/03/2008 09:22

DS is 12 and a half months old and for a couple of months now (since shortly after starting nursery) has been patting me on the head (not that hard until recently) when I picked him up. ALthough it looked like he was slapping me, it wasn't seeming malicious so I ignored it. He has started now to do this a bit harder and saying "Err!" before he does it - and sometimes it bloomin hurts! I have started to grab his hand and say "No!" in a stern voice, and occasionally "Don't hit mummy that's not nice!" He also (and this is sometimes in temper or when he is tired) grabs my face/neck and squeeezes and digs his nails in from time to time.

Now I know that this is often normal but how do you deal with it? Stern "No!" is often met with a repeat of the same. Moving him somewhere else such as his cot often has not much impact. My DP seems keen to do it back to him (very gently) but I strongly warned him off doing this as I think that a)DS would then think slapping/grabbing is OK) and b)in order for this to be in any way noticeable you would have to actually hurt DS so not an option really.

He's generally a pleasant and 'chilled out' sort of baby, very uncomplicated mostly but I am at a loss as to what to do about this as I don't want to make the problem worse!

OP posts:
Report
NewDKmum · 16/03/2008 11:54

Hi there. My dd2 did the same thing when she was that age. For me it worked to take hold of her hand and show her how to stroke my face gently saying, 'mmh, that's so nice', 'nice and gentle' and things like that. I found as well that a stern no didn't help at all! Hope it works for you!

Report
PerkinWarbeck · 16/03/2008 12:05

when he hits, follow the firm "no" up with putting down/walking away/turning back, or any clear indication that this is not a way to get attention.

later on, do what DK mum suggested and practice gentle touches.

we have to do this with my 12 mo DD, who is a bit of a biter. Seems to be working.

slowly .

Report
PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt · 16/03/2008 19:29

This works with DD....

Gently remove hand and while shaking head say firmly and about 3 times with totally blank face 'no. No pinching'.

Replace hand back to where is was and show her how to stroke gently and then give loads of genuine praise and smiles and kisses and then swiftly move on to playing with a toy / book so as not to overdo it all!

This works when it comes to touching objects I don't want her pulling over etc too. Now she will just put her hand out to touch it and grin and pretend to do x,y or z and i just shake my head and she moves on.

Report
AlexanderPandasmum · 16/03/2008 21:31

Thanks everyone for your messages. It seemed to work on DS this afternoon a bit more - when I showed him how to be more gentle he decided that to go with the whole mood he should give me a big kiss as well!

OP posts:
Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.