Please tell me this too will pass.

[Curlylockscurlylocks]

DD is 8.5 months and very active and chatty and smiley and sociable. She has been crawling for a while and never sits still; she's always on the go. Although I think it's important for her to meet other children, baby groups are becoming increasingly difficult. She has started crawling over to other babies and patting them sometimes quite hard on the head/face, sticking her fingers up their noses/ in their eyes etc and occasionally pulling their hair or grabbig their t- shirts. I appreciate that some of the other babies her age (e.g. from our NCT group) do something similar but not to the same extent or with the same frequency. I think she is simply curious rather than hostile- she is smiling at them and trying to "chat" to them as she's doing it, but obviously that isn't going to be a great comfort to the baby on the receiving end. Of course, I remove her and tell her no and demonstrate the importance of stroking/playing gently with gentle arm stroking, but I would be really grateful if anyone could let me know when this might start to have any effect. Is it just a phase? Any other suggestions as to how we stop this behaviour would be much appreciated. I have just come fron a baby group where the other mums seemed to think she was sone kind of bully, at 8.5 months old and I'm feeling pretty sad.

It's perfectly normal and will pass, probably not for a while though. Most of them don't really master social skills until 18 months-2 years, some even later.

My advice is seek out older children or babies who have older siblings, both the children and the parents are a bit less precious and will see her behaviour for what it is; developmentally normal and completely innocent.

You have a couple more years of it I'm afraid. You do need to hover with a baby like this though to interfere before the hair grabbing etc rather than after. Of course it's curiosity and not malicious, but other mums of PFBs being poked at will respond with understandable concern.

She'll have little interest in other babies and as above will do much better with older kids/adults. Go to swimming classes and take her to museums/petting farms/shopping. This is a stage to avoid the organised baby group IME. Even whispers soft play on a rainy day, where she'll not be the oldest or most active by a long stretch!

Come and play with us! I have the boy version of your baby.
He crawls through and over people like a tank, he grabs and pats. He is a smiley little soul, but he's just a bit over enthusiastic sometimes...

I distract him as much as possible, and I do have to helicopter a bit when he's near younger or less mobile babies. Happily, most people see it for what it is and don't get huffy - smile lots and apologise when you have to. Playgroup a are quite good, because he's not the oldest or biggest - he can't catch the kids who can walk.