18 month old hurting others.

[yougotafastcar]

sorry this is my first post, i'm usually a lurker!

i'm looking for help with my 18 month old ds. He started creche a while ago but only recently is he happy to go, he doesn't cry when i leave or at all when i'm not there.

the problem is he has now started hurting the other children. at first it was all children but today he has been targeting the younger children. he is hitting/kicking/grabbing their faces. he makes a really angry face while doing this and is quite strong. today the staff had to strap him in a pushchair because he wouldn't sit down when being told off or leave the children alone. they have really apologised about this but i have told them to do whatever they need to do to stop him hurting others.

at home he is lovely when he is happy - funny, friendly, loving. however when he's angry you really know about it! he kicks, hits, throws toys and tries to bite.

i take away toys, tell him 'no' firmly. pretended to cry. nothing makes a difference to him. i just dont know what to do as he doesnt understand consequences. please help!!!

meant to say he only attends creche about 4 hours a week maxium. and sirry about the lack of capital letters/punctuation, i'm typing on my phone!

It's hard because you are not there to see what triggers it. He could be jealous or wanting attention, or simply he is not used to being with other/younger children. We see this often (I'm a childminder) and it wil be hard as he is there only a few hours a week. Could you take him to playgroups and see how he behaves with other children?

Also, you can role play this somehow at home, you can line up his teddies and you stroke them, saying 'kind hands' over and over again, and encourage him to touch the teddies kindly and nicely, so when he goes to creche the staff can use the same words to encourage him to be kind and not hurt.

Have a plan in place - how would you like the creche to handle this? 18 months is very young and he won't understand most forms of 'discipline' but he would understand a sharp 'no', take him out of the situation for a few moments (at this point I would say not to pick him up or give him a hug, you don't want to give him too much positive attention) and repeating the word 'we have kind hands'. I hope that makes sense.

thank you for replying.

will try with his teddys as he does love those! he does understand what he is doing which is even more frustating. he does it to me when he is angry at being told no, but like you say, i dont know what triggers this at creche. i'll ask them if they notice a pattern when he goes on monday.

hopefully he'll grow out of it soon!