1yr old hitting and scratching

[Bellyrub1980]

My 13 mo daughter has started hitting and scratching people in the face, in anger.

I've tried telling her off but she laughs in my face!

Is there a way of disciplining a 1 year old or is she too young to understand?

Should I just ignore and distract?

have I given birth to a psychopath?

Totally normal - ignore the hitting/scratching and find opportunities to praise her when she gets it right. She'll soon find out its an ineffective way of getting attention :)

You must nip this in the bud as soon as possible. When she hurts you, you must yelp, show her you are sad (even fake cry) and then put her down immediately and ignore her for a minute. If you do this consistently she will learn that inflicting pain results in a negative reaction which is a really important thing to teach children obviously.
This works, I did it a few times with my daughter and she has never hurt me since.

Thank you! Its a relief to read that.

Is that the case for all other 'naughty' behaviour?

Try saying NO, then putting her down as soon as she does it. So she starts associating it with less attention, not more. Don't worry, it's normal and she's not a psychopath! My DS2 started hitting around 14 months - he's now a gentle and relatively well behaved 6yo.

Unfortunately this phase lasted a lot longer with my DS than with Flamingo's DD. It works eventually though if you persevere!

Ok, lovely thank you. I shall start that today!