16 month old baby pinching and hitting, best way to deal with this?...

[Ezzer47]

My 16 month old DS is quite a bruiser- he is fearless and strong and very resilient- he can really wallop himself and he won't cry, he'll just look a bit perturbed. My problem is that he (hits and) pinches- anywhere will do- this morning we have already had his dads arm bleeding and he then grabbed my eyeball and made the skin above and below my eye bleed! I am starting to look like a battered wife, and if I am honest I do feel like I am in an abusive relationship- my son also goes the complete opposite way and can kiss and cuddle me like the sweetest thing on earth. As he is so unpredictable I sometimes find myself almost cowering and wincing in anticipation of a hit in the face or a hard pinch.

What is the best way of dealing with this? The automatic things is to go 'ouch!' - he knows the word ouch and says it indignantly if he hurts himself. But I appreciate I may have to stop myself saying ouch because it is of course giving him a reaction. I have tried to not make a sound in response and remove his hand and say 'gently' or 'stroky' and get his hand to stroke me (this usually ends in more hitting!). It is hard to remember to do this when you are being pinched hard though. My other child (11years old) can't always be expected to bite her lip and not go 'OW!' too.
DS has started to start saying 'ouch' when he pinches now too :( I know this is our fault- we are giving him a reaction.
Any advice very gratefully received, if you have experience of this, and found a way to encourage it to stop then PLEASE post!
Also interested in when it will stop- I know that he is really too little to associate that our 'ouch' is because we are hurting like he hurts when he hurts himself (if you know what i mean! :) )
Also worried because he looks like he is ENJOYING IT when he does it!

My ds went through this sort of stage and found it hilarious. We ignored mostly.

He did grow out of it, if that's any help.

There was one incident where he made me cry (involved a saucepan and a foot and freakishly strong toddler ) and it stopped shortly after this. I think he must have twigged when he saw that mummy was in rather alot of pain and had tears.

Good luck, I hope someone gives you some good advice.

Ds is a pincher, a bit of a hitter and now has a ghastly habit of painfully rooting in my pregnancy stretched bellybutton.

Agree that teaching gentle movements instead is a good idea. If he likes a funny reaction how about teaching him to clap his hands and say BANG! and you do the same - ds found this very funny at around that age (stemmed from bottle of Cava incident at New Year!).

Also keep his nails short and filed if you are getting scratched in the process. Ds seems to really understand "I don't like that. Please stop doing it" and put your hand gently on his so he knows what exactly you are refering to, he does immediately stop but 10 seconds later is doing it again unfortunately. Partly it is just waiting till they out grow it I think.

Dd2 is just 18 months and the same. We try to take her hand gently, and softly rub it on my face or arm and say shush shush gentle gentle, and it does calm her.
Were still working on it though

Take hold of his hands, make him look you in the eye, say clearly "Ouch, that hurts, you don't hit/pinch" in as stern a voice as you can muster. Repeat if necessary. On the third attempt physically remove him/ move away and go about your business. Repeat this often and consistently. And if he does it to someone else, always give more attention to the person he's done it to. Eventually it'll sink in.