14mo dd keeps pinching us!

[fadingfast]

This is a recent development. She grabs little fistfuls of skin and digs in her nails. She is doing it in a playful way but it really hurts and is beginning to upset our 4yo ds. We didn't experience this with ds - just a short phase of biting for which we responded by putting him down and/or walking away. Is this pinching behaviour common? There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it and I'm not sure what if anything we should be doing about it. Has anyone else experienced this?

yes - dd who is #3 did it when she was about 11mo, lasted a couple of months. It seemed to be made more 'fun' for her by the fact that her then 2yo and 5yo brothers would squeal. We ended up telling them not to get in her reach/grasp, definitely not to do it back (which took huuuuge willpower from the 2yo) We also asked them to tell her to point to something she wanted instead of grabbing, and yes even that young they DO understand. They get over it - but the latter did seem to work

Thanks gigglewitch. I suspect she is liking the reaction she gets a bit too much so I will try to work on not reacting! I also think she is showing signs of getting frustrated, and perhaps this could be a symptom? She has a fascination as well with all my moles (I have LOTS), and keeps trying to pick them off - very painful!

owwwwww!

yep going through that phase at the moment with my 13month ds not sure wether to ignore it which is difficult as it really hurts or go with my natural reaction which is to yell owwww, he looks so cute and angelic as he does it as well

tell them sharply that it hurts (and as long as they don't keel over laughing, it works)

Very common indeed. Do the same as you did with the biting - put down, walk away, don't react.
Hurts though, doesn't it.