14 month old smacking me

[charliegirl25]

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my 13 month old dd does this, and kicking, all the time. i haven't found a way to stop it yet as she completely ignores me if i say "no". it's hard at this age cause they are still too young for discipline and quiet time. I'll watch and see if anyone else has some advice.

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I had this one, big time, with ds. Had some excellent advice from MNers which was "ignore, ignore, ignore". At this age, any reaction, even a negative one, is good and means they will keep doing something. I used to just cut dead, turn my back, tidy the papers but just ignore him (but not leave him) whenever he did this. Whatever game we were playing just stopped until he was nice again. He didn't like it much but it worked! They don't understand "no" so that isn't really going to work, it just surprises them into stopping momentarily. Good luck

Why not try putting him down off your lap every time he smacks you, with a firm NO. He might cry but count to 20 in your head before you pick him up again.

He will soon recognise the pattern and hopefully get the hint. I think at 14 months they don't really understand NO. They're getting your attention and that's what they want and don't really twig that it's naughty.

I watch my friend do this with her child and it seems to work.

Distraction is also good at this age. Ds would keep hitting me unless I suggested something else for him to do!

When we had this we would either ignore or say 'ouch' in a quiet sad voice with a sad face. It stopped very soon and the last few times would be followed with an attempt at comforting us.

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