2 year old constantly hitting me...how do I deal with this?

[larlylou]

My ds is turning 2 next week. I am 26 weeks pregnant and within the last couple of weeks he has started to sternly look at me and hit me. I have tried ignoring him but he will just repeatedly hit, I have tried talking firmly to him followed by distraction and at one point I ashamedly resulted in smacking his bottom (which really doesn't show a good example of trying to tell a child not to hit!) and have also tried time out (but he ends up enjoying wherever I put him and we don't have any 'boring' places to put him and I don't think this really works at this age, does it?. I really don't know how to deal with this and why it is only me he does this to. Is he doing this because of the baby or just a typical toddler behaviour? I have checked at nursery and he doesn't do this to any other child (luckily) but I am at a loss as to how to deal with it...any suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

Have you tried being the one to leave the room? If he's not getting any attention then maybe he'll stop. It could be the baby but it's normal toddler behaviour too. Big hugs, I have two aged 3 and 1 and know how knackering it is being pg and looking after a toddler.

My ds3 (2) does this to my ds2 (9). Telling him off doesn't seem to have much effect so we literally turn our backs to him and ignore him.

Thanks for the suggestion ionesmum, I will try this out (probably tomorrow I suspect!). Why is it that they can be so sweet and endearing one moment and the next minute they turn into little monsters. I do need to be consistent though I suspect and eventually I hope the message will get across - here's hoping! I do believe it is attention because as soon as I distract him and play with him he is all smiles and plays so nicely then the hitting will come back again. I make sure that I give him plenty of my undivided attention and try to get him involved in what I am doing to but sometimes this just isn't enough...god they can be so demanding...!

I think the thing is to give positive attention i.e. only when he is behaving as you want him to, with lots of praise.

Lots of luck for tomorrow!