Hair puller!!!

[Britney]

Every since I can remember ds has pulled hair. I even got mine cut short about 6 months ago because his constant pulling of it was driving me mad. Up until recently, I've kind of let him get away with it - under 1, too young to understand any form of discipline - but now its starting to become a real nightmare. I have to constantly keep my eye on him at toddler group & try and avert any incidents. I can no longer leave him in the playpen before or after his swimming lesson because he pulls the other kids hair & makes them cry. And as for poor dd.... well I think its starting to wear a bit thin with her too. Because he's older now, she's starting to want to interact with him more, but every time she trys she just ends up in tears because he's taken another swipe at her hair!!!!

He tried it again tonight when we were tidying up & dh gave him a hard smack on his hand, making him scream in shock. I'm not sure whether this is the route I want to go down as regards disciplining him, but if it works.....

Just wonder whether anyone else has experienced this or can offer me any words of wisdom? I'm getting desperate....

Anyone.....?

sorry not too much help britney, I have a 6 1\2 mth hair puller. I just keep saying please let go, please let go while levering her hands open to let go. She is finally starting to get the idea of letting go so am hoping it doesn't continue.
Has ds pulled hair since the smacked hand episode? Could you have this as the end discipline with a couple of things inbetween to build up to the smack ie. ask nicely, try to lever hands off then if no luck quick smack?

No smack hasn't worked. Ds is only 13 months old & doesn't understand being asked nicely. As for levering hands off, he has an extraordinary grip! By the time you get him off whoever his victim is, he's usually letting go anyway because he's got the hair he wants!

My daughter didn't do this, but she learned very quickly what "no" meant. When she did anything we didn't want her to do, we removed her hand with a sharp "NO!" and took her away from whatever it was she was doing, whether it was something dangerous or something anti-social. You may want to reinforce it with a light tap on the hand but I wouldn't recommend a hard smack, he is still only a baby after all. You will need to repeat it ad nauseum until he gets the idea of what "no" means, but he will get there.

It's a shame they then get to 3 and forget what it means again, though!

My daughter pulled my hair when i was on the tube once when she was about 3. i was really shocked as she had never done anything like that before. She was screaming and crying and everyone was looking at me. I had to wrench her hands away and really hold them dwon firm by her side, while she screamed even more. Eventually she settled down.
But what made it worse was that the next day a man came up to me and said. "Are you ok?", didn't recognise him so just stared at him and he said, "....your head, is your head ok, i saw you yesterday when your daughter was pulling it". What a dunderhead!!!! You just don't do that! Would you, seeing a couple arguing go up to one of them if you saw them the next day and say, "...everyhting all right then, did he cheat on you...it's just that i saw you arguing yesterday" I tell you, i felt like giving that man's hair a tug myself!!!