My DD is 15 months. We have a real problem with her pinching. This has been going on for months now.
She pinches especially when she’s tired, frustrated, annoyed and/or bored. But sometimes she just seemingly randomly pinches: we can be reading a book together all nicely, and she’ll just pinch your forearm out of nowhere. It’s especially bad when she’s falling asleep: she likes to hold my or DH’s hand while falling asleep but then she’s pinching away like mad!
What can we do? We consistently tell her no pinching, ow that hurts, and try to model gentle hands, like stroking our hands/arms or stroking her hand. If it’s bad we will stop playing with her, sitting back and stopping engaging and saying no pinching. If she pinches while being held, we put her down if at all possible. It’s just that it’s hard to do that always, like if she’s pinching while trying to change her nappy, or while she’s falling asleep, we can’t put her down for example. It doesn’t help that often my DH will have a big reaction, loud voice etc. And sometimes I can’t help it myself, like when she grabs the skin on my neck and pinches hard, it’s difficult not to react, push her hands away etc.
I feel I’m at my wits’ end with this. Nursery have said she sometimes pinches there too. My hands and forearms are covered in little cuts, bruises and other marks from her, and the skin on the backs of my hands hurts from her constantly pinching there. It’s been going on for ages, and so much advice out there says it’s just a phase, they stop after a while, etc. But I don’t know what to do beyond what we’re already trying to do?