21 month old smacking himself. am so worried, is it due to moving house?

[bilberrypie]

last week my ds started smacking his hand with the other when told no. we have never hit him, threatened him etc, he has also taken to flailing at his face when told no. its awful, i say no don;t darling, but it doesn;t help. is it stress? how to i get him to stop?
we moved a week ago to the middle east, and it started the next day, so i guess its connected.
any advice welcome. i am giving all the time he wants and lots of cuddles.

Toddlers do seem to do things like this at times of stress. My DD went through a phase of pulling out her hair and eating it when she was over tired or stressed. I kept repeatedly stopping her and reassuring her and she has pretty much stopped. It reached a peak when we went abroad with my mother (who seems to have the effect of making DD anxious at the best of times, but in a foreign country / heat / no routine etc it was worse). Occasionally she lapses back and I catch her tugging at a little strand if she is unwell and overtired but on the whole she passed through it fairly swiftly.

I think it sounds like you are doing all the right things, so just stick at it and hope that, like most things with toddlers, it's a brief phase that he will grow out of quickly.