Hitting - Ignore or discipline?

[merrymarchhare]

24 mos DS has started hitting occasionally. Its usually when excited or tired.

Do I carry on down the line of 'No hitting'/calm down/explain/apologise etc... He will go along with this process very nicely at the time but it doesnt seem to be stopping the hitting, in fact he seems to quite enjoy it IYKWIM.

Or, do I ignore?

What works with yours?

I'd combine the two - "No hitting"/put down and ignore whilst making a fuss of the child he's hit/calm down/explain/apologise.

ignoring him is discipline if hes only 2. but you have to ignore him, not what he did iyswim. is it you he is hitting or another child? ds3 is 18 months and if he hits me i put him down and walk out of the room so he isnt getting the extra attention of the explaining why not to hit

I've just started the naughty step supernanny technique and it does work for me. ds1 hates not to be the centre of attention and being excluded from the room we are all in kills him.

Its me and DH he hits.

We already do the ignoring bit in the middle of the whole 'we dont hit' process. What I meant was do I completely ignore it altogether if the other way isnt working?

DD occasionally hits me when she's really tired and excited - not hard, but still not ok. I do the same as you, but TBH I think when she's that tired discipline doesn't work - nothing 'goes in' anymore. I think at 23 months old (or 24 in your DS's case) they're only just gaining impulse control anyway, and if they're exhausted - they regress. I still do the 'its not ok' put down and ignore stuff to give the right message - but I also clock how knackered she is and make sure she gets some rest, which does the trick much more effectively!

merry, just continue what you are doing, I think.

My experience with dd is that hitting comes and goes in phases. Just before 24 months, dd hit dh and I for the heck of it - as you said, she quite enjoyed it. We just held her hands firmly, kissed them and said "no hitting". If she did it again, we did the same, then tried distraction.

Then she stopped for a few months. Now at 2.2 months, dd is going through another hitting phase this time other children at nursery - but that is because she just moved into a room with bigger kids and she is somewhat stressed out by the increased jostling. She does not hit dh or I anymore. She gets a gentle talking to at nursery, cries, but I think in this case, she needs as much support as she does discipline.

If your ds is excited or tired, I wouldn't make a big issue of it.

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