Baby 14mths likes to pinch me at bed time v annoying!

[Foxey]

i guess I have already explained the problem here but just wondered if anyone else has experienced the same and had any advise what to do about it. I have just started to put dd into her cot (use to walk her but is really to big now)and stroke her hair/back until asleep, however she tends to try and touch some part of me (any part) and pinch me. I use to let her but my mum thinks this keeps her interested and that I shouldn't, it also quite often hurts and annoys me. However if i don't let her i end up having this ridiculous fight with her where i keep having to turn her over put her hands back down etc and it is hard work. Does anyone else have a similar bedtime routine that might help?.

Hmm - at 14 months I would be seriously trying to have a bedtime routine that involved bath, milk, book and bed but without the 'trying to get them to sleep' bit. Perhaps some kind of staged withdrawal over the next week or so to make it kinder (or there's always cc if that doesn't work!)

Hi 3s enough - really am I a push over? Well I was trying to work up to being a bit toughter. However we are due to move into a new house in a few weeks but are staying with our in-laws (his Mon-thur/mine fri-sun so no one gets killed) in the mean time. I therefore haven't been too harsh as life is a bit up in the air. What shall I do just put her in and not touch her? But make she lies down..must admit dh and i are sick off long go to bed routine.

Also we do have bath book bed...then strokes..

foxey - my dd (20 months) is/was similar but she likes to tug on my hair rather than pinch me. I think your dd is doing it for comfort so i suppose what she needs is an alternative - teddy/blanket/something like that??
My dd is much better with the hair tugging thing now so hopefully yours will grow out of it too. And don;t worry about being a pushover - if you're one then I am too!

Hi skidadle thanks - us pushovers can stick together (funny isn't it what they get away with). I have introduced a lovey (this cute soft monkey but not sure what to do with it. just put it in bed with her?

yes I suppose just put it in with her - I've tried this with my dd but she just wants my hair! I imagine it will be a long and gradual process, if you can bear it...

Hi Mine is only 9 1/2 months and does this. Gets great big handfuls of underarm flesh. I know she's not doing it on purpose but it's hard not to get irritated isn't it? You could move to hand holding through the bars of the cot see if that would help

Foxey - you're not a pushover at all! (I am hoping that it didn't come across in that way) I was just saying that at 14 months, lo is old enough to get to sleep on own and understand how to do it. I wouldn;'t have a clue how to do staged withdrawal etc, and if you're moving house soon, perhaps it's not the best the best time in any case. There are a few experts on here in kinder methods than cc, so perhaps they can help.

Good luck!

Thanks 3s enough. I actually agree with you entirely but don't feel entirely comfortable with cc. This week, dd has only been having 1 nap in the day and it has been easier to put her down. The other problem we have is giving her the dummy back in the night - we generally do this 3-5 times during the night, it seems to have gotten worse recently but i think where she is right next to us we answer her every whim hopefully once we move we have a problem . Have you given any of yours dummies, if so how did you remove them?

foxey - my dd has never had a dummy (sucks her thumb instead) but a friend recently weaned her ds off his, just took it out and let him cry - don't know if you can bear to do this but it worked for her - three days later and he's fine (and sleeps through now)

my dd3 pinches me when she is sitting on my lap

it bloody hurts! she does it out of curiosity I think.

but i dont haevf a drawn out bedtime routine with her - bath, milk, cuddles and songs, sometimes a book, cot, night night, out I go [thinking '1 down, 2 to go']

Oh wow Enid that sounds like absolute heaven! I am tying to work towards that. Do you then just let them cry it out or do you go in? Re the dummy I think as dd is now 14mths that we will have to get rid of it soon. I think once settled in our new place we will see how she gets on finding it herself but if that doesnt do it we will have no choice but to go cold turkey.

Foxey - mine didn't have dummies (tried with ds but he spat it out in disgust when he realised it didn't produce milk!!) but I suspect cold turkey is the best, and probably about now - I would go in as per cc - every 10 mins or so just so that she knows you're there. My friend left her ds1 until he was 4 - when she tried cold turkey with his he sneaked over to his little brother and pinched his instead - she then had both of them awake for 2 weeks!!

hi, my dd is almost 14 months. she finds it very difficult to get to sleep if she is not stroking or touching me in some way. usually i find it endearing but every now and then it drives me mad.
she has had eczema since she was 2 months old and finds it very hard to settle herself as she is often very itchy at night.i think it distracts her from the itching long enough to settle. i tried controlled crying but hated every minute of it and she still wouldn't settle in the cot after 2 weeks so she sleeps in our bed every night at the moment.
sorry i don't have any advice. dd is attending an allergy specialist now so we are hoping to get the eczema under control and then we will try to introduce a new bedtime routine.

oooh me too, I have a nasty scab on my upper arm from when ds had his milk last night. He scratches the same bit over and over if I don't stop him. the other night it was fingers up my nose lol

he's the same age by the way. Bedtime routine, have you tried the disappearing chair? it's amazing, ds has always been a pain to get to sleep but we've gone from rocking/cuddling him to him getting off on his own by using Baby Whisperer Pick ~Up Put Down and now by moving hte chair a couple of inches a day nearer the door he goes to sleep without anyone in the room. I think he thinks we are sitting in the doorway.

lol at thinking you are in the hall way, but it sounds good. I will have to have a read. I have stopped cuddling dd when she sleeps now so she can't reach that very tender underarm skin, I just lay her on her front and stroke her hair but she does still try to rub/scratch my hands and forearms.

aren't babies weird things? Ds spent ages poking me up the nose again this morning when I tried to settle him for his sleep. Let me know how you get on with disappearing chair (you won't need baby whisperer if you don't have to cuddle her to sleep anymore)it felt fab the first night it worked and I was downstairs with a glass of wine 5 mins after finishing his bath.

Our dd, who is 12 months, is a terrible pincher. My neck, my chin, the back of my arm. Ow! DH calls her Maeve Pinchy. She loves a bit of bare flesh, and will lift up my t-shirt to get to my wobbly tummy, or crawl up behind me if I'm crouching down to find the bit of bare back at the top of my trousers to nuzzle against!
But this is just in the day time when she's tired, or while she's having her milk before bed: I am very lucky that she just goes right to bed after her story and milk and goes to sleep by herself. We did our own version of cc when she was 5 months (gosh, that seems awfully little and cruel now, but at the time I thought it was the Ruight Thing)and it has been a blessing.

The bare back thing is evil isn't it. Ds managed to push up my top at the back and scratch flesh that hangs over the top of my jeans - nice