2 yr old kicking and hitting me

[girlafraid]

I'm looking for some reassurance that my 2year old DS is "normal" and if there is anything else we can do to stop his aggression.

It is almost always directed towards me -yesterday he bit me on the wrist and today kicked me twice very hard in my bump when I lifted him up. I'm afraid I just lost it and burst into tears - I'm 30 weeks pregnant.

He is much worse if tired (of course) but also responds badly to being told off in any way. We time out to a certain extent - it sit him down, explain in a low voice why what he's done is wrong and make him apologise. He doesn't seem to do this to my DH and I'm starting to wonder what on earth I'm doing wrong! I'm so tired and achey and this is really starting to get me down. If I wasn't pregnant I think I'd be sat here drinking a large glass of red rather than a cup of tea

My 2 year old went through a hitting phase, what worked is a consistant approach of no/stop hitting, lots of ouch that hurt mummy/sister/daddy etc, making a real fuss of person that he hit (the impacts of his actions seemed to sink in and the attention went to them and not him).

Now his language has improved it has calmed down a lot, so think a lot of it was frustration.

Watch out for flash points ie try and manage him closely when tired

Dont be afraid to confront him, dont let instances of hitting out go unchecked, and get your DH to support you/ step in too. Not sure how effective time out is at this age, though thought I saw a recent thread on this that may help

Hope it get better soon

Mine went through this too. She only hit me mainly, sometimes my DH, but never other DCs. We tried lots of shouting but that didn't work. Neither did the naughty step. I think what worked in the end was explaining (in great length) and repeatedly how much it had hurt us and looking very sad. Just to say it did pass although I can't remember how long it took.