My lovely boy has been replaced by a wild animal.

[pongonperdy]

My DS is 2.5 . I appreciate that his behaviour may be part of being 2 but it seems to be getting worse. He is hitting my DD , DH and me all the time. Pulling hairs, chewing toys and generally being detructive. He is very big for his age and very heavy which makes trying to control him harder. He does not respond to any form of discipline. I am at my wits end and am actually hating being around him at the moment.

Help, please.

My son whos nearly 4 went through this its very normal ( i think ) he also use to head bang when told no, it took a long time but he did grow out of it, like your son he did not respond to discipline like time out or a smacked hand but did respond to me being tough taking away toys and the naughty step (which we still do) at one stage it felt like i was picking on him and i cryed a few times but you will get through jus keep on his behaviour and when he dosnt play nice walk away that worked for me, hope this helps and good luck surviving the 2's.

Thats reassuring. I just feel like crying with frustration sometimes. Whats even harder is he is the size of a 3.5 year old and it actually is quite paimful when he hits, scratches etc.

i think its always hard to know how to deal with them hitting, you cant really hit them back to show that it hurts and its not nice and it cant be left unchecked, my 3.9yr old son is at 1/2 day school and ive been pulled by his teacher because he hit someone, but my son said this boy hit him first so if you tell them not to hit they get hit (teacher might not see it) or you tell them to hit back and they get in trouble, theres no winning sometimes.

As soon as he hits you, say "no hitting!" in a very firm voice and put him in time out, paying him no attention. When he is being gentle and lovely, this is when you should give him the attention so he realises that positive attention is better than negative.

Yeah, it's hard work, soul destroying (at, times) but be assured, it's normal .

Agree with pp, don't bother with explanations other than the odd "hitting is wrong", "no!" etc, but remove him from situation, eg put in a different room and walk away when the worst of it occurs. He should then get the message that this behaviour is not desirable!

Can you get outside with him more? Eases things for everybody!!!