18 month old hitting her week old baby brother

[mckenzie]

My 18 month old goddaughter is hitting her week old brother, mainly around the head and face and it's obviously really worrying my DF and her DH.
I have a much bigger age gap between my two so I dont have any experience/advice to give her.

She's not a malicious child although she has been know to hit out, at my DD for example, even before the baby arrived.

Can anyone help please?

TIA

[CADS]

Mckenzie, there is 21mnths between my two. DS started doing this to dd when she was 2wks old. I think my mistake was trying to keep them apart because he was ill at the time and i didn't want dd to get ill too. He did it mainly when i was trying to move him away from her. Despite my efforts dd got sick so it was all pointless. He did is for about a month. I just watched him closely, relaxed about him being near her, gave him chances to cuddle her and it stopped. When he did hurt her, I just told him that it wasn't nice but was relaxed and didn't get angry with him. I think it is important to be chilled and not to step in too quickly. Also, I stopped positioning myself between them.

Hope it all ends soon.

[mckenzie]

thanks CADS. I'll pass the info on.

[glassofwine]

Hi, my last two were only 11 months apart and my DD would bite my DS in the double buggy right from the beginning. It was very hard because at only 11/12 months old she was too young really to understand this was not acceptable. The more I reacted, the more she did it. I also had DD1 who was only 3 so couldn't avoid putting the two little ones in the buggy at times - I was a really tough time, but fortunately a phase. Now they are 3 & 4 they are most of the time great mates, like most of these childhood bad phases it will pass. Obviously the older child is seeking attention, so just ensure she gets lots of time with DF and her DH that's hers and not shared. Wish her luck