18 month old suddenly started scratching/grabbing my face and making himself sick

[UncleBunclesHouse]

I’m a bit concerned about this new behaviour DS seems to have started - he only does it with me and never at nursery. He has started sticking his fingers down his throat until he is sick (was just after a big lunch one day last week and basically destroyed the car seat) and is relentlessly grabbing and scratching at my face. I tell him firmly no, take hold of his hands if possible, but he seems to find this hilarious and doesn’t make any difference. He’s generally a very happy little boy, very active and boisterous but this is all a new level. I’m totally stuck as to what to do?! Any ideas how I should be approaching or similar experience? TIA

my dd started doing all these things at around 18 months. She's 22 months now will still occasionally put her finger in her mouth, has never been sick such just retches. I find this behaviour tends to be attention seeking, occurs after I put her to bed. Once I return to the room she stops. The face scratching seems totally random, she will just randomly scratch my face, not in anger can be happy at the time. I just tell her no and if she does it again remove myself away from her which she hates, so if in her bedroom I go downstairs for a few minutes. It's quite rare now the scratching. Generally though she's been such a happy and content baby and now toddler.

Thanks that’s good to hear @Jacky209990, it’s not always easy to leave him when he’s doing it as it’s often when I’m carrying to/from somewhere so not at home or safe lots of the time. How long did it take to end!?

She still does it, but it's very rare now maybe, once a fortnight scratching and the fingers in her mouth once a month. Which is a vast improvement, it was everyday. It just granually stopped. I suppose I was quite lucky, most of it occurred around bed time and we where in lock down, so could leave her for a few minutes.