How best to handle a 'grabby' 6.5 month old?

[fibrecruncher]

I put this in another section but haven't had any responses so thought I'd try here instead.

My ds is very active. Crawling, climbing stairs, he pulls himself up to standing easily. So he's quite strong and when playing he grabs whatever is near him or in his way i.e. hands arms cheeks etc. He's a happy little boy so I know hes not trying to cause damage its just not so pleasant and not good if he's too rough with another baby. Is it best to say no in a stern voice or to model the behaviour we'd like by saying gentle and stroking or touching lightly. Any advice would be great thanks.

I've always just said 'No - gently' in a soft but firm voice and removed his hands from whatever he was grabbing. They learn by repetition, I would never be stern with a 6.5 month old (babies have no concept of hurting anyone, you can't be upset if a 7 month old baby grabs your baby at a playgroup and it gets hurt, our 9 month old sometimes pulls our 4 year olds hair - we say no, and remove his hands, but there' not point giving him into trouble about it, he has no idea of consequences at this age.)

Ditto. 7mo DD likes to grab everything, particularly hair, lips, ears or just handfuls of skin. We just say 'no' clearly and firmly and remove her hand. No idea if it's working, but I definitely think she's too young to understand the concept of being gentle.

IMO babies this age are much more likely to learn and copy the behaviour you want (consistently show them "gentle hands" by taking their hands and stroking your hand or face or whatever) than to understand the concept of "no". Go with the positive action, not the negative concept - they don't understand negatives till much later. (Worked with my two, now aged nearly 8 and 4. The elder one went through a bit of a hitting stage later at 2.5 but that is a whole different ball game!)

My 7 month old does this and we are doing the "no" in a quiet soft voice and then saying that it's not nice and it's much nicer to do this and then stroking her face and guiding her to stroke our faces - helps that we have a dog too who is looking somewhat fed up at having fist full of her fur pulled out, especially as she doesn't moult!!

Oh I have a grabber! DD loves other babies and explored by grabbing. We do 'no thank you - kind hands' and gently stroke. I wasn't sure it was working but she's incredibly gentle with her new baby cousin, stroking him so it is (she's 11mo now).

Thanks for the replies op. I mostly worry when he's with other babies as wouldn't want them hurt. My instinct tells modelling the behaviour is the best way to go but sometimes in the moment its hard to remember:)

A baby shouldn't be allowed to pull a dog's fur.

All babies grab hair, face, nose etc. I don't think anything works and this age (6 months) as they have no understanding of hurting you or consequences. Say "no" or "gently" but it's more for your own benefit (or the other person who just got face grabbed) but it won't make any difference to the baby. My baby grabs my face and then laughs when I say "oww" lol