1 y.o hitting anything\anyone he can

[laurenflan]

My son has started the habbit of hitting. Even standing at the car window getting his attention he will sit and try to swipe at you through the glass etc. I've tried all I can think of from a firm 'no' to telling him that hittings bad and leaving him in his room for 5 mins. Nothing seems to work and I don't want to tap his hand as he will think because I'm doing it to him he can do it to whoever he wants. He has a party soon and I don't want him trying to hit any other children there as well as anywhere else. Not sure if its just a phase or something else. But has to stop. Help?

Persevere with the "No".Hopefully eventually it will sink in.He is only 1 and probably one of few non verbal ways of displaying frustration.It just takes lots of time and reinforcement sounds like you are doing it all right:)

Yeah hopefully, knows his own mind for being 1 lol. Thanks :)

Also try saying to him 'gentle' and get him to stroke your face so he starts to understand that it is hitting that is wrong not all physical contact. It sounds completely normal though

DS (14 months) sometimes had a tendancy to do this too. He tends to hit faces - especially when tired and hyperactive (he's a very energetic child!). We tried no for weeks and were getting nowhere, despite it working for other things. We would say no and if he did it again he got plonked down on the floor, or moved away from us.

However, as this wasn't entirely working, on the suggestion of my Dad we tried tapping him on the face every time he does it to us. And I mean tapping (in fact I usually tap him on the head not the face). He doesn't like it, gets confused and ALWAYS then stops hitting. A month or so on, it has worked pretty well. We no longer have to do it very often, and he doesn't tend to hit much. When he does, we try no and the moving away. If that doesn't work, he gets a tap on the head.

As for the making him do it to others, it really hasn't had that effect. He's in creche 4 days a week and they tell me the only small thing he does wrong is sometimes tries to climb over the little ones (!). No mention of any hitting.