2 year old hitting out

I’m at my wits end with the hitting phase 🙃 I’ve tried all the methods to get my little one to not bite, hit, push, pinch etc but he is still doing it daily. It never happens in nursery or the day crèche but always seems to happen with me. I’ve tried giving him my undivided attention with no distractions and I still get hurt. The health visitor at his review said it’s normal but my god does he have some force behind the hitting and it really hurts! I’ve had cuts & bruises and I feel like I’m failing as a parent. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and no nasty comments please 🥺🙏
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It’s a really hard stage where they are testing boundaries and seeing the limit of what’s annoying and hurtful to you and will you still love them. He loves you and feels so comfortable with you he knows your a safe space to practise this. I tell my daughter that I won’t let her hit me, it hurts . At this age it’s more about repeating this rather than explaining, it will take time but it’ll get better ❤️

@Kimberley thank you lovely xx

We had a really bad stage of this, my husband was absolutely covered in scratches and bruises!!!! It has definitely improved recently though. What we found helped was naming emotions, really simple like “you’re sad” “you’re angry” “you’re happy”. Then when he hits/scratches we say “that makes mummy feel sad/hurt”. Then when he is gentle we said “that makes mummy happy”. It really helped!!! Took a lot of time but it got there eventually. (He did then go through a phase of hitting children at nursery JUST so he could then cuddle them and make them happy again 😂 )

Thanks lovely I appreciate your help xx

Agree with above. Also we demonstrate behaviours to him. So when he does something naughty me qnd my husband will model apologising. I.e. my husband will say “sorry for hitting you mama, we know thats not nice and we were just feeling angry but we won’t do it again” ..it’s really worked to help him understand what he’s done, how it makes someone feel and then what he needs to do about it

@Arooj thank you xx

We are having days where are little one is pushing, hitting and shoving people his own age. We've found it's worse if he's hungry, tired or feeling unwell. Today he was being a nightmare with his cousin - he'd already had a nap so we ended up giving him his dinner at 3.30pm. Played so much better after that. So I'd try looking to see if there's any patterns n see if things are improved by food, sleep or calpol.

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