biting, hitting, and pulling?

CollieJade

I feel like I have a frustrated 2 year old, and she's only 7 months. I should have paid more attention to all the biting posts lately...

A is REALLY strong, and in the last week or so she's been hurting me with all the pulling and biting.  I don't even know how to describe what she's doing, really, but for example, sometimes when I hold her and she seems perfectly happy, all of a sudden she'll lean over and put her mouth on my shoulder or arm and bite hard.  She's also started grabbing, pulling and squeezing bits of my flesh lately.  Like she'll grab a handfull of my arm flab and squeeze hard so that even if her nails are trimmed it leaves a mark!  The hitting is driving me nuts too.  She  just starts banging her arm and hands around and when she discovers that it lands somewhere on my face or chest or arm or other body part, she just keeps doing it and it's funny.

I know she obviously doesn't have any idea what she's doing and she's certainly not doing it intentionally.  Can they do this out of some frustration at 7 months old?!?  What the heck is she so frustrated about?  How do I get her to stop?  I'm tired of the bite marks and bruises.  Seriously.  I have three small bruises on my belly right now from her grabbing flab and squeezing.  I feel like a battered mother. 

michelleaxo

Yup. G pinches me, hits me and squeezes me. I think it is her just not wanting to be held and restrained . But then if I set her down, she cries. It is really frustrating sometimes. Maybe some of it is also her learning how to grab and pinch and not realizing that it hurts. I try to tell her "ouch that hurts" in kind of a stern tone, but one time I made her cry when I said that so I have kind of backed off of the stern portion. It has been getting better lately, hopefully that phase passes quickly! Hang in there!

MrsBeckO

The biting may be from teething.. Camy tries to gnaw on anything and everything when she's cutting a tooth, including (but not limited to) my shoulders, my arms, my cheek, my finger, etc etc. We have a stash of teething toys at the ready, and just grab one to hand her when she starts to bite and gnaw on one of us. 

The hitting and pulling, the only experience/advice I would have for that is geared for older babies/toddlers, not really 7 month olds. They aren't really at an age where you can "teach" them they need to express themselves differently, ya know?  Maybe someone else can chime in on that one.

txbabs111

A lot of the time, I think at this age it is really a case of "Oh, hey, my fingers can do this and it feels weird. I wonder what will happen if I do this to Mommy" rather than "I'm angry at Mommy and want my way"

C started pinching and scratching a lot while I was nursing her. At first I would try to tell her no or that hurts and she would laugh. I just started  ignoring her and when she did it and nothing interesting happened, she stopped.

Ditto BeckO that the biting could be teething. Or, I know that C has been chewing on everything for months and still has no teeth.  She'll bite my shoulder or collar bone and I think it's just the old "babies chew on everything" line. Try not giving her a reaction and maybe she'll get bored. I feel your pain (literally) because sometimes it does hurt (especially the pinching on the back of my upper arm) but I really think that, more often than not, at this age, it's not due to frustration.

CollieJade

The "hey, what happens if I do this?" thing makes sense!  So frustrating though.  I will try not reacting and see if that helps.  Boy does it hurt though!

And this confirms my suspicion that she's cutting that top tooth. UUUUGHHH.  No wonder she's been so fussy at night.

Emer

txbabs111:

A lot of the time, I think at this age it is really a case of "Oh, hey, my fingers can do this and it feels weird. I wonder what will happen if I do this to Mommy" rather than "I'm angry at Mommy and want my way"

C started pinching and scratching a lot while I was nursing her. At first I would try to tell her no or that hurts and she would laugh. I just started  ignoring her and when she did it and nothing interesting happened, she stopped.

Ditto BeckO that the biting could be teething. Or, I know that C has been chewing on everything for months and still has no teeth.  She'll bite my shoulder or collar bone and I think it's just the old "babies chew on everything" line. Try not giving her a reaction and maybe she'll get bored. I feel your pain (literally) because sometimes it does hurt (especially the pinching on the back of my upper arm) but I really think that, more often than not, at this age, it's not due to frustration.

Ditto 100%