Hitting

lhgd1989

DS and DD are 19 months apart. The last two days DS has really started hitting his sister. Today he even chucked my cell phone at her head. It was so hard to see my one month old cry in pain. I do my best to give them equal attention. While DD sleeps I make sure to not nap and spend time w DS. I also breast feed DD so that takes up some time. Any advice?

LC122

How are you reacting to the hitting currently?

We haven't really had this experience between the kids, but any aggression toward the dog is met with an immediate time out and an apology to the dog. We discuss that we don't hit, hitting hurts and is not kind.
We also address possible causation - frustration, boredom, etc. but that can sometimes be more difficult to tease out.

lhgd1989

We do what you do with your dog. He immediately gets taken to time out and is told we don't hit because it hurts and is not nice. Once out of time out he has to apologize for what he did and give that person/baby a hug. Still doesn't seem to be working. I try to spend as much time with him as possible and still talk and pay attention to him while I'm holding DD.

melaniedel

We completely ignore bad behavior and praise good. The throwing, if its something he wants really bad it is "all gone!". if it is a puzzle piece for example, I hand over hand make him pick it up and finish puzzle. Mine does it for attention so I try and teach other ways. It works for us. He doesn't do anything to be mean, yet so I rather save time outs for then. Good luck, and congrats OP!