14 month old hitting

[Broodymomma]

Help please!! I am at the end of my tether with my son. He has been hitting me for a while - it has calmed down lately after months of taking his hand and saying "no" in a very stern voice. He has now decided he will hit himself instead and today at the soft play i had to move him away from 7 kids who he had smacked about apologise to the parents. I just dont know what to do with him!! Help x

DS does this as well. Sigh. I don't think there's much esle you can do other than NO and moving him away. Making a fuss of the injured party can help too .

Repeat It's a Phase and have a drink

Love it thats exactly what i am doing. Perhaps we should get our ds's together and let them give eachother a taste of their own medicine lol

Ok, we are now at 19.5 months and he is worse than ever. I am at my wits end with him. We had a playdate yesterday and he constantly hit any child he could reach, it was awful. Nothing seems to be working with him. Looking back this started when he was 9 months old so surely 10 months cant be a phase?? heeelllpppp!!! My frind said yesterday she thinks he needs to see a child phsyc. I have had him at the doc but they were not interested. Im going out of my mind with it now. Any advice?

He doesn't need to see a child pshyc! It is a normal phase and yes it does go on for a while but there it is very very very unlikely that there is any problem. You just have to be very consistant with him and telling him 'no' then encourage him to touch children gently instead of hitting them all the time. Take his hand and gently stroke the person he's hitting and tell him gentley, at first he'll pull away probably as he wants his arm free but he will get the message eventually. Now when I see my ds is getting too excited and likely to smack I just say 'gentley' and he (usually!) just strokes the person instead of whackong the hell out of them. It is normal what he's doing, i wish all parents were as concerned about it as you though, all the parents at my toddler group just let their kids walk about bashing babies as they go and noone says a word. They all do it!

DD (now 2.4) did not hit others, but she went through a long phase of about a year, of hitting, kicking and biting mummy. Only mummy for some reason, no-one else . I kept telling her No, put her down when she did it, removed her from me with a precise move so she identified it with her act. It appeared to do nought and I used to feel very upset indeed.

However, it DID stop, of its own accord, from around 19 months onwards (not immiately) as her speech developed more and she was able to communicate better. She does it occasionally now when she is very tired and frustrated, I think for her it is a communcation thing.

Could it be communication for your DS? Does he talk yet? Maybe you will find it will start to improve as his speech develops? I hope you can find a way to improve things. But I don;t think he needs to see a child psych either!

[immediately, that should have said not immiately!

Hi, I'm just so relieved that other children of the same age are hitting too. My son is 14 months old and he hits me, usually on the face. I sternly say "NO" and pull his hand down and away. I have even tapped his hand and have sternly said no, to which he just sobs. I then continue with taking his hand and saying gently as we stroke rather thn hit!!! My niece used to same at the same ae, she's now 26 mnths and hasn't hit for a while. I can remember my sister tearing her hair out - but it does stop.