14 month old starting to hit

My DD is 14 months. She's an angel...literally SO good. But the last week suddenly she's starting to act out. She'll smack me in the face and say "NO". When I sternly tell her "No" or firmly say "HEY! No hitting!" she'll start to cry and be visibly upset, but then she just does it again 5 minutes later. She's obviously testing her boundaries. I'm assuming she may have gotten this from daycare. Anyway, just wondering if this is normal behavior and what the best way to handle it would be?

14 month old starting to hit

My son went thru this phase. He is such a mush. But when he didn't get his way, BAM! He was swing and smack me hard, and pull my hair too. He was legitimately beating me up on a regular basis. He's 20 months now, and seems to have stopped this behavior. So hang in there! Just continue to firmly say NO and try to convey that you are in pain from it.

14 month old starting to hit

Dd has started this. I just tell her no.

14 month old starting to hit

DS went through this too. Normal phase. I would sternly say “We don’t hit.” And tell him No repeatedly and direct him to something else. He grew out of it. It stems from not being able to fully express themselves verbally.

14 month old starting to hit

Oy! DD did this. She would hit us and herself (SO HARD). I would just tell her "No Hit". And I actually made up a cute song that I would sing whenever she did it. It's only a phase, hang in there

14 month old starting to hit

My 11 month old hits!!! It drives me nuts. I redirect him and scold him with a firm no. We have no redirected the hitting to clap hands and I state, “we don’t hit but we can clap our hands” and now he claps, when he does hit, he gets in trouble

14 month old starting to hit

My son who is 15 months just started this too. Those little hands hurt! I pretend to cry and he gets sad and stops but then starts again soon after. I think it is a phase. My twins did this too around the same age.

Re: 14 month old starting to hit

DD does it, too. I tell her that she gave whoever a booboo and it's not nice. Then I tell her to say sorry and do nice. Though let me tell you, it's hard not to cringe when she raises her hand to gently rub your face after hitting you .5 seconds ago.

Re: 14 month old starting to hit

Mostly hair pulling over here but some hitting. What works best with her is that I ask her to "do nice" for me (which is how we taught her to pet the dog haha) and then she "does nice" and strokes my hair or back instead. I do say no, and tell her she's hurting me also, that doesn't seem to have as much of an effect. Worth a shot!

Re: 14 month old starting to hit

It's a normal show of frustration - particularly when kids want to communicate but don't yet have the verbal skills to say what they want.

Re: 14 month old starting to hit

My oldest did this at 15 months and he only hit me. I tried different things like redirecting, saying no sternly, encouraging gentle touches and pretending to be hurt when he hit, but the most effective one by far was a time out. I put him in the corner and told him he had a time out for hitting. He was the kind of kid who would just sit there and cry. This would’ve never worked with my middle one, but my older one hated it so much that after only a few time outs, simply the threat of one stopped the hitting. He outgrew the phase pretty quickly after that.