Teaching 8mo to not pull hair??

[browneyeNYmomma]

I'm sure this is a problem every parent has with babies, but I really cannot come up with a solution to help her stop.
DD pulls my hair like crazy and she claws at mine and DH's face! She doesn't think it's funny and she's not doing it only when she's upset, she just does it pretty regularly. And it hurts! How do you gently teach an 8 mo to not do this? Any tips on this would be greatly appreciated!

[CherryBombMama]

well ... my 13 month old does this ... and i find even though nothing STOPS him, when he starts pulling/scratching, i tell him "no scratching" and when he keeps doing it (he always does, never expect a baby to listen to "no" LOL) i either walk away or put him down. after a while, the pulling/scratching almost stops

hth

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

Do you show her how to do "Nice"? This is what we did with our 18 month old, and still do. We use the word over and over again, niiiiiiice, NIIIIIIIIICE, and we immatate petting his face softly, or hold his hand and help him do it softly to our faces. Then when he scratches/grabs at again, we say, do NIIIIIIIICE, and then he immatates us. Then rinse and repeat.

[browneyeNYmomma]

Originally Posted by Barbie64g

Do you show her how to do "Nice"? This is what we did with our 18 month old, and still do. We use the word over and over again, niiiiiiice, NIIIIIIIIICE, and we immatate petting his face softly, or hold his hand and help him do it softly to our faces. Then when he scratches/grabs at again, we say, do NIIIIIIIICE, and then he immatates us. Then rinse and repeat.

We are trying to teach her "soft touch", pretty much exactly as you described. But I know this will take time and consistency for her to get it. Right now when I take her hand to show her how to "soft touch", she gets frustrated and yanks it away. I will keep being consistent with this, youre probably right that it will help eventually.

[lyra1977]

My DD did this and every time she did I would say "OUCH!" in a high pitched, loud voice and then look sad or pretend to boo hoo a little. It was a phase and I'm not sure if my reaction helped or not, but she got over it after a couple of weeks (and moved on to pinching me...that's another story).

[vettegirlhw]

We went through this phase, too. We also worked on showing my daughter 'gentle' etc, but found the most effective thing was grin and bear it a time or two by ignoring it, as once I did that about 3 times, she found she got no reaction from me and it wasn't fun for her anymore LOL. It worked for us, she never did it again!

[phathui5]

Is it long enough for you to put it up? This sounds like a job for the ponytail holder.

[lifeguard]

I agree with pp. We used "gentle" & showed ds with his hands in ours how to touch us or the animals. But we're still working on it. It improves, slowly, with time. They just don't understand how it hurts.

[lindsayjean]

Originally Posted by lyra1977

My DD did this and every time she did I would say "OUCH!" in a high pitched, loud voice and then look sad or pretend to boo hoo a little. It was a phase and I'm not sure if my reaction helped or not, but she got over it after a couple of weeks (and moved on to pinching me...that's another story).

ha- I do this and my baby laughs HYSTERICALLY and tries to pull my hair again. Or bite me. Or pinch me. It's seriously just my natural reaction and he thinks it's SOOOO funny.

But seriously, I don't think you can teach an 8 month old.... it's all just preventative. Get a nursing necklace or something that your LO can play with on you, wear your hair up, take out your earrings, wear a headband WITH your hair up to prevent hair grabbage even more. And I stick my finger in my babies mouth sideways to unclamp those SHARP teeth from my arm/chin/whatever. redirect redirect redirect.

[coffeegirl]

My 10-month old nephew does this constantly. The only thing that really works is pulling my hair all the way back in a bun or twist with a hair clip.