18 month old hitting

[Beccylt]

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips or advice to stop an 18 month old hitting people. He is such a lovley pleasent little boy most of the time but if he doesn't get his own way/is removed from somewhere he shouldn't be/has something taken off him that he can't have he has horrendous tantrums and hits out really hard. I currently have two huge deep scratches on my face and have been hit very hard with a plasic train!

We have tried telling him no and holding his arms at his sides but it doesnt seem to be working. My hubby has tried shouting, which either makes him hit more of laugh!

I just really dont know what to do to stop it. Its getting to the point where he lifts his hand up and I am flinching waiting for a whack!

any ideas how to discourage this will be ost welcome!!

Hi beccy, My ds is a bit smaller than yours (16mo) and does something similar when hungry/ tired/ teething. The way I deal with it is I say no firmly and put him down on the floor and walk away, refusing eye contact for about 30seconds or so. He usually wails, though I don't insist on it (!), then I pick him up and say 'say sorry to mummy, no hitting, gentle boy' etc etc and he kisses me. It took a while to have an impact, but has really worked in terms of reducing the frequency of events and I can tell by his face he knows exactly what will happen when he's done it. He stopped doing it completely for a while but has started again as he is ill and grumpy. Even now, it's much more half hearted when he does it and he has even been known to stop himself mid swing/ hit himself instead.

HTH!

Thankyou for your reply! I will definatly try that - sounds like a good idea

Just to agree with Singalong, I do pretty much the same thing with my ds if he hits - we tried the whole telling off/shouting etc but it just made him more annoyed and hit more (or made him laugh), just saying no and then ignoring him for a while really does the trick - if ever he does it now all I have to do is give him the look and he strokes my arm saying be gentle!! Another tip to do alongside it is praise when he is being gentle as he'll realise that nice behaviour also gets attention but in a good way!