18 Mo. Old Hits

I dont know if a time out is going to work. It sounds like temper tantrum to me. At 18 months he doesn't have any impulse control yet so whatever comes into his head he is going to do because he doesn't yet have that little voice in his head that tells him which things not to do. And if you put his in his crib for time out he's going to connect his crib with punishment and will get upset at bedtime and nap time because he'll think everytime you put him in his crib he's doing something wrong. I would talk to his pediatrician next time you take him in. If they are temper tantrums they are only going to get worse with the more attention he gets for it. If you ignore him it will stop. My nephew did the same thing. I started ignoring him when he did it at my house. Now he only throws tantrums at his home or grandparents but not at my house, because he knows he can't get attention for it here. hope this helps.

I know how you feel!!! We are going through the same thing with our 18 month old son :( What we have found that works is... We firmly take his hands and hold them. (we have found that time outs, he just doesn't understand yet). As we are holding his hands firmly, we firmly tell him that hitting and throwing hurts, and that it is just not allowed! We then hold his hands for 1 minute, and then after we give him a hug, and show him "gentel hands". (we gently rub his back or something along that line) We have found that this works for him. He does not like us holding his hands at all... but we have been constant and firm with him.
We have found in the past few days after we started, that the hitting has decreased dramaticly!!

GOOD LUCK :)

Hi K.,
My son is 2 and used to hit. Timeouts don't seem to work for us because he can't sit still that long. So if he behaves badly and we can't get him under control we tell him that if he doesn't behave he'll have to go to bed and we put him in his crib and close the bedroom door. He usually throws a little temper tantrum for about 10 minutes. And if he isn't sleeping after 10 mins we get him out of bed and say "No hitting, hitting gives boo-boo's" and we give him a hug. He doesn't associate his crib with punishment but your son may.
Good luck and let us know when you find something that works for you.

I feel for you. My kids are throwers and hitters too. Time-outs don't always work at 18 months old. They don't get it. I put them down and walk away.
If they throw something, it becomes mine for the day. They don't get it back until the next day.

Hi Kim -

Our daugher has done this a few times and if she continues after we tell her no, it's straight to time out (approx. 1 1/2 min). Our time out is a kitchen chair facing the wall. If she can still see/hear us it often doesn't phase her so we leave the room (just around the corner out of eye sight). When the timer goes off, we come back and have another little chat about hitting and how we don't do it, how it hurts, do mommy and daddy hit you, would you like it, etc. The next time she tries it, it's 1 warning and straight to time out with a chat about we don't hit, we asked you to stop and you chose not to... and after timeout another chat about we don't hit, etc.

Hope this helps
J.

Hi, you definately have to do some kind of dicipline. If you can't get him to sit in a chair put him in his crib. Tell him no hitting or no throwing and put him there swiftly, do not over talk it. If you try to reason with him you've lost the effectiveness of it. If you are doing the chair and he gets up, just put him back. No talking to him. If you do the crib, stay out of the room for the 1 1/2 minutes. When time is up simple tell him again no hitting or throwing and move on. This has worked well with my kids and seems to work on Super Nanny too. Just remember not to talk or try to reason with him.