How to discipline a 17mth old

[Browneyedgirl3107]

My DD is being so naughty at the moment and im not sure how to discipline her as she obviously doesnt understand right from wrong at this age.
When she does things i tell her no but she just laughs at me and keeps doing it, if i try to distract her it doesnt work, ive tried movin her away from where shes being naughty but she'll bite or hit me. I tried tapping her hand but she just laughs. She gets enough attention at home and we always play with her and take her out so it cant be boredom. How do i stop her wrecking the house ad kickin and biting me? Nothin seems to work. :/

It is hard. It is fun to her. It takes time. Just be consistent. Never laugh, move her every time and when she bites and kicks you, get down to her level and look her in the eye and say 'no' firmly.

You anticipate where things might start going tits up - try and avoid her being near something you don't want her to touch, etc. You distract, you say no, you remove item swiftly. Tapping her hand is pointless. You're right - she doesn't know right from wrong so discipline doesn't come into it. She's not being naughty - she's being a toddler, and part of that is testing boundaries.

Count to ten a lot, pick your battles and remind yourself that this is one of many stages that will test your patience - avoidance is always the best tactic.

I agree with hassled. She is a baby-no point in disciplining, she simply doesn't understand.

yy it's not discipline, you are more like re-directing

feel free to say No to biting/kicking, and putting her down/walking away/making a cup of tea when she does

you will be sick of taking her away from plugs/washing machine panel/dvd slot, sympathies

remember that this too shall pass

Sympathies. I have an 18mo who is just the same.

I agree with the other posters though - she's not being naughty and doesn't need disciplining. She's a baby and just needs to be kept away from things.

I would never discipline my 18mo as she's just being curious and i am exhausted from disciplining my actually naughty three year old

Thankyou for your comments. She's my first child so i'm learning as i go along to be honest, wasnt sure if she was actually bein naughty or it was an attention thing to be honest. Why does she keep doing things even when she's being told 'no' and go back to it when she's being moved away? Is it because she got my attention?

Yes, they just love the attention I think.

My DD2 is a real hair puller and often grabs her big sisters hair. When I ungrip her fingers, say no and move her away she gets really over excited and wheezes with laughter the little git

Because she wants to see what happens!

What kind of things does she keep doing? Are they things you could put out of reach or block off her access to?

ah no, it's not naughty, she's exploring all the time:

what happens if I touch this, what does that do, ooh look a flashing light, let's yank on this, where does this cable go and on and on and on

all you can do is minimise risks of her being hurt, stuff being damaged (plug covers/cover dvd slot/cupboard locks) and provide her with opportunities to use all her senses

She will pull the blinds and yank at them, play with the oven when its on and try to open it all the time, the washing machine is being played with all the time so i have to keep restarting the loads, banging cupboards doors cos she cant get in them because they have child locks on them. We can be sitting nicely havin a cuddle n she will pinch and scratch at my face for no reason. Do you think maybe im being abit unreasonable and these thins arent really being naughty? Ive only just thought that while ive been typing. They really get to me thou :(

She sounds very like mine. She got hold of the moondough and rubbed it all over the carpet earlier today and while I was clearing it up she emptied the dvds out of the drawers and ripped the boxes up.

She also climbed up a set of steps at my friend's house and turned her oven on.

It's very frustrating! I totally sympathise. Not naughty though, just annoying!

Feel like i over react about it but a constant bangin door is enough to drive anyone mental. Defintetly will have to count to ten and keep calm about it all, she is still a baby at the end of the day. It must just be an attention thing, hopefully the phase will pass, then i can look forward to the terrible twos...ooek :) x

Put a stairgate on the kitchen so she can't get in there? And maybe pull the blinds up so she can't reach them?

With both my DSs I actually found the 18m to 2y period harder than the terrible 2s because you cannot reason with them at all. You can say to a 2yo "Don't touch the oven, it's hot" with some chance of them understanding, but this means nothing at all to your DD.

OP, please don't think of her as naughty, she is just being an active, curious little girl. Babyproof the things you really don't want her to touch.

The kicking / biting thing is different. I would respond with a firm no and a withdrawal of your attention. Don't expect her to immediately stop doing it though! It's just a game to her.

Would agree with baby-proofing as much as you can for your own sanity. We have gates on the kitchen and stairs which basically makes the living room like a big play pen which may be the only advantage to having a REALLY small house .

We also have small tupperware boxes and tupperware lids gaffertaped over any switches/ slots we really don't want investigated. DS's toys are all in baskets in low level units easily accessible to him and we keep them well organised and have a rotation system for what's out which helps to keep him interested in playing with acceptable things. All our stuff is made to be out of reach (by various creative means- we have wedged the DVDs so tightly into their unit that even we struggle to get them out!).

There are still times when he has to be told no and removed from something, but at least it's limited so we don't feel like it's all we ever say to him.

Will go on a mission 2day to get bits out if the way so the temptation isnt there for her, drawers she can get into i will put her toys in instead of things i dont want her getting hold of.
Thankyou for all ur responses its definetly changed the way im thinking about it, instead of thinking she's naughty its just her being curious. Thanx again :)

with my first son i hardly had to put him on time out,but he has been diagnosed with verbal dysphrasxia as he has speech problems,my second son is nearly 2 and he has a diffrent nature,he got into everyfin,had to put gate at kitchen as cooker and washimg machine was a nitemare,only fing now is the telly he keeps switchin it on and off i end up unplugging it,iv tried tap on the hand,time out which does wrk thn an hour latr he l do smfin else sp im keepin with timeout and started reward chart for both of thm and if thr good each day thy get a treat aftr diner and if thy get all thr stars thy get to go to soft play on a saturday which seems to be working for now.