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Attachment Parenting
BFP 02/04/2011;EDD 10/14/2011;Induced due to pre-e 09/07/2011;Jack born 09/08/2011
Teaching 8mo 'gentle'
DS decided last week he was going to sit up on his own, start crawling, and start pulling up on things all in the span of a few days. This is great except he wants to be all over the place all the time. I expected that, but not the injuries to DH and I it would include. DS wants to be held sometimes (he lifts his arms to be picked up) but when you pick him up, he starts kicking you and grabbing your face, etc. He's already made DH's nose bleed. I try redirecting, but it seems like no matter how much I redirect he just thinks it's funny (no matter how stone cold I am about it). Any advice? Anyone else deal with this?
BFP 02/04/2011;EDD 10/14/2011;Induced due to pre-e 09/07/2011;Jack born 09/08/2011
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Re: Teaching 8mo 'gentle'
It may take a couple weeks but if you watch him like a hawk and DON'T let him hurt you all the while demonstrating 'gentle'. You can do the gentle touches as well. Other 'outlets' for hitting include high fives, I often put my hand in front of my daughters when she was 'hitting' and said "High fives!! Yah!!" she loved it.
Make the 'positive' things he does A HUGE DEAL! if he cuddles gentle give him huge praise, clap, jump, tell everyone! Just get super over excited. And when he hurts you stay calm, say "ouch" make a 'grumpy' face and put him down. Try not to make a huge deal out of the pain... he will learn.
I hope this helps. My dd went through a phase of biting/hitting when she was 9-10 months... I seriously was afraid of her! But I kept reminding her to be nice and prevented her from hurting as much as possible and she figured it out.
Little Rose is 2 1/2.
All of this. My AP-minded pedi suggested this and I'm so glad that I stuck with it. Around 13 months when DD would hit/bite/whatever and I said "gentle gentle" she would stroke whatever body part she hit/bit. It's still very effective now.
We also went through a pretty rough biting and hitting phase, and this was pretty much our approach. It was bad for a few weeks, but eventually worked.
The good news is that it does get better. DS is now very gentle with DH and I and the pets, and he routinely comes up and gives us a gentle pat or stroke when he's feeling affectionate. It's really sweet.
Hang in there, mama!
You know what's funny? These are the same methods we learned in puppy training with our dog.
I was serious when I told husband we were going to clicker-train the baby...