18Mth Old Won't Stop Slapping Me!

My daughter does the same thing. Her ped told us to say "no no" and put her down and walk away from her. That didn't seem to work. I tried slapping the hand but that just makes her laugh. I think that when I give her the stern face and say "no no" in my serious mommy voice, it has the most effect on her.

Tell her no harshly and while you are telling her no make a mean face at her. It seems to work for me with my two.

Good luck.

I too have an 18 month old. I tell her, "No, that hurts". Then I take her hand (gently) and I rub it on the side of my face and say, "Nice, or soft, or gentle" in a very calm voice. Your child is simply trying to get a reaction out of you. I am with you on not spanking. How can you tell your child not to hit you while you are hitting him. I have a BS in Child Education. I thought I knew a lot until I had my DD and then I realized I didn't know anything! Ha! LOL! We have also used her baby doll and stuffed animals to show 'soft/gentle/nice'. She used to hit her doll (?) but now she looks at her and says 'nice'. She still has her moments where she'll whack the doll but then I remind her.
It's just reminding your child, and not over reacting if it does happen. We are now working on a not kicking at the change table which is something new. Just be consistent. good luck!

T., you need to teach your child that you are the adult and authority figure and will not stand for her hitting you. Slap her right back. You can not reason with a 18 mos old child. They understand action/reaction. Give her a negative reaction and she will stop. If she thinks time out is fun then you are not teaching her any consequneces for her acitons and she will continue to bully you.

My 20 Month old little one used to think it was funny to slap me until I started looking at her sternly telling her no and tapping her hand hard enough for her to know that it hurts when she smacks us. It worked almost instantly. Good luck!

Time out probably isn't working because usually children are not developmentally ready for it until the age of 3. As someone else responded, she is probably trying to get a response out of you. Try ignoring her when she does it. Don't give her any attention, positve or negative. As a behavior therapist, this is the response we typically begin with when a child is slapping, hitting, biting, kicking, etc for attention. My daughter went through the same stage. The more we ignored her the less she slapped us. After she would calm down, we would teach her the "right" way to get our attention (i.e. saying Mama or dada). She tried other behaviors to replace the slapping (i.e., biting, kicking, screaming, tantruming), but we continued to ignore them. She eventually quit. We still have to remind her from time to time to get our attention the "right" way. The only exception we made in this behavior plan was to address the behavior if she did it to someone other than myself or my husband. It was rare, but when she did, we had her say she was sorry (in her own way) and then removed her from the situation. We started this at about 15 mos. She is now 21 mos and behaves much better. Good Luck!

Read the book Making Kids Mind Without Losing Yours by Dr. Kevin Leman - great parenting book!

My 18 month old is doing the same thing. I have learned that he HATES to be ignored. If he slaps me or grabs my face and squeezes (another favorite of his), I'll say "No Hit!" and then turn my back to him for about 1 minute. He gets so upset when he doesn't have my attention. After a minute, I'll give him a hug, tell him I love him but he cannot hit.

I think it's wise not to hit a child in hopes of teaching her not to hit.

My 17th month old is in the face-slapping stage also. Sometimes he'll do it when he's upset/angry, but more often than not he's just excited and hauls off and slaps me not realizing that it hurts. I've taught him to use gentle hands by showing him how to touch gently, so when he does slap, I quickly say, "You hit, you sit." I then sit him down on the floor, in a chair, wherever is most convenient, and I tell him to use gentle hands. When he touches my face or arm gently, I know he's ready to get up and play again.

Sometimes he gets really upset about the sitting part, but he's slowly starting to put two and two together. While he still slaps some, it's not every time I pick him up anymore, so we're making progress. It's been a couple of weeks, but like everything in a little one's life, it takes a lot of practice for them to know the rules and to understand the rules for hitting are the same no matter where they are. We have whole days go by without incident sometimes. Eventually he'll be on to learning something new, and this will just be a memory. HTH!

ETA: After reading some of the other responses, I have to say that the main reason your time-outs aren't working is b/c your child is too young for them, not b/c your parenting poorly. There are many tools that parents can use other than hitting a child, but the tools must be age-appropriate. Put the time-outs in your tool box for later on. :*)

My son was going through the same thing. I would tell him no and he would just keep doing it. I would also show him how to be gentle and that would work sometimes. But what I found out worked really well for him was that when he would hit me and I would say "ouch, you hurt mommy" and then I would make a sad face like I was crying, he would stop and look at me very concerned...they don't like to see mommy sad. Now when he would do it (he's now 25 months) and I would "cry" he stops immediately and look at me and say "sorry mommy" and give me a hug. He has realized that hitting hurts and mommys get sad too.

Just something to think about. I hope this may help you. Good Luck!

Because of her age your daughter may think its a game. When she slaps you what is your response? Do you laugh or scold her softly? I would over and over in a stern voice just say NO-Hitting is not nice and not allowed. Would you be willing to give the back of her hand a tiny tap (more for the shock factor) as soon as she slaps your face? Also, time out... does she have a cute lil chair or rug in her time out area? I would remove them and put a plain hard child chair there and make sure she faces the wall. This sounds like it has become another play area in her mind.

All 4 of my kids did that to me at one point and all I did was take their hand and tell them in a stern voice that it's not nice to hit people and to stop. They would cry for a sec and they stopped for that day and of course they did it again and I just kept telling them it wasn't nice. One time I just softly toched my daughter Kayla in the face when she wouldn't stop and she didn't like it and after that she never did it again. It didn't hurt her at all, but she was just so surprised that I did it back she never did it again. So I did that with the other two and it worked. I wish you luck!

A. in Ohio

You're right, time out won't work at this age. However it is important to start setting limits for her. If it were me, I would say "I'm not going to let you hit my body. Hitting hurts." in a firm, but not yelling voice. Then I would put her down. She will probably cry. After about 30 seconds, pick her up again and let her know that if she hits you, you will put her down again. Then when she does(notice I didn't say "if") follow through with the same language as before. I also say things like "I'm not going to let you hurt my body". "Gentle hands" and then I would take her hand and gently stroke my face. She is just testing you. It is important not to freak out about it, since your reaction is half the fun for her. My daughter went through a hitting stage around that age and then again at 3. My son went through it a little earlier, around 12-15 months. Good luck.
Hope this helps!

We have not had luck with time outs for our 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter, either. Just like your daughter, they think it is fun, or a game. What has worked for us is that we put something that they are very attached to, like my daughter's blanket, in "time out" on top of the refrigerator, for the same amount of time that she would be in timeout. She gets very upset if her blanky has to go in time out, and has helped her to listen better, etc.

Hope this helps!

the only way i got my child to stop slapping me was to do it back( gentle enough to let him no it hurts). i tried time out, i tried whipping. i tried no treat. and he crossed the line when he went up to a 6 week old and slapped him in the face for no reason. i know you may not like whipping but sometimes you kind of have to. i just try to save it for the really big things. but he very rarely slaps any more and it all started when he was like 17 months and he thought it was funny and it would really hurt. just like the biting thing. i know someone who went through that and until his mom gently bit him back he kept doing it. i don't think they realize it hurts

Hi T.:
I'm going through the same thing with my 18mo. old. I give her three chances to listen to "No! That hurts mommy." and then she gets a time out. It's not really working so far, but I figure it will be some time until she gets the idea. Repitition and consistency is our approach. I've also concluded that she's doing this because she's trying to tell me something and, at this age, they just don't have the words to say what they want (can you imagine how frustrating that would be?)...so her communication comes in the form of physical aggression. I've started giving her other outlets for this. She's welcome to take a small pillow and swing it around instead of using her hands. (She loves pillow fights!) This has started to work too. When she raises her little hand to hit, I say, "Where's your pillow? Want to play?" and it redirects her attention and gives her a more healthy physical alternative. Good luck...everybody says it's just a phase!