14 month old hitting and biting

[ruby242]

I need some advice for my 14 month old, for the past month or so he has been repeatedly hitting/biting/grabbing other children's hair! I always intervene and say 'no we don't hit etc' and move him away to something different but sometimes he just goes straight back to try and do it again. I'm just at home with him so wonder if he doesn't understand how to interact with other kids as he isn't around them as much as if he went to nursery. Any suggestions on how I can help him learn? It's really upsetting me and I'm now avoiding going places where I know it's likely to happen. He's seems the only one I know who does it!

Maybe try telling him what to do instead. I try to say "gentle hands". You can practice with a doll or stoking a cat etc. Sometimes at that young age the "no" but doesn't compute. Catch him being gentle and name the behaviour. "You're using you gentle hands." Heap on the happy voice and praise.

Second what tootired said. Telling them what to do instead works much better than telling them to stop doing something. In my experience anyway.

I also think that 14 months is really young and it'll be difficult to explain to them what's right and wrong. Try and be patient and not too get too cross or upset when your DC does it, although I know it can be hard to see when they are being "aggressive". It's normal behaviour and he's only a baby

He's exploring at 14 mo he has no idea that he's hurting someone. I found mine bit when they were excited. They really start noticing other children at that age too, which means they get excited with meeting a child and want to touch/grab/mouth them. Just intervene and say 'gentle hands' as said above and they grow out of it fairly quickly. Don't stop going to groups as the other parents/carers will have seen it all before. Some children do it more than others but it isn't anything to worry about. You'll just have to sit in with him and get to him before he grabs someone's hair.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. I like the idea of showing him gentle hands and teaching him that phrase as I do understand he's not trying to be 'naughty'. I will persevere with it!

Agree this is a normal phase. When DS2 went through this, I found the only thing that worked was, after one warning, to leave immediately and take him straight home. He was a bit older than your DS though - yours might still be too young to understand the link between his actions and the consequence. Worth trying if this is still a problem in a few months' time. Hopefully he'll have stoppe before then!