Hi, I'm a long term lurker on Mumsnet but thought I would start a thread on this to get some advice.
My DD is 10 months old and so now tends to be one of the biggest and most mobile children when I go to mother and baby groups. The problem is that she often crawls up to smaller babies and pats their head / hits them with whatever she is holding / tries to poke them in the eye. I know this is 'normal' behaviour for a baby and there's no malice or aggression in what she is doing, she is being playful and trying to get a reaction.
However, I was wondering how you responded when your babies did this at a similar age? She is too young to understand any reasoning or 'discipline'. At the moment I try to stop her doing it in the first place of course, and if she does manage to hit or poke another baby I tend to say 'no, we don't hit other babies', and distract her with a toy. I always feel mortified in front of the other mums and wonder if I should somehow be in better control of DD?
Please reassure me this is normal and let me know what you did!