STOP PULLING MY HAIR!!

[Poodge]

DS just turned two. He has been pulling my hair hard and no matter how I try to react he just laughs and laughs while DH and I try to pry his hands off. He has literally ripped handfuls of hair our by the roots and to be honest it hurts like hell.

Last night we actually implemented true time out for the first time ever - your in your room for two minutes alone. We had to do it three times in three hours. I am not sure what to do to get through to him. He also has been kicking us lately, which I try to redirect to kicking something like a ball but he just runs back over and starts kicking while saying "Kick, kick, kick". I am so tempted to pull his hair or kick him back. In fact I am shamed by this but this weekend I did "kick" him back. It was super light more like a tap and did nothing (he laughed) but make me feel awful because I don't want to hit or be physically agressive toward my child.

He watched very little TV before this and we have cut it out completely because it seems to overstimulate him, but besides that I am at a loss and needed to vent because I want to YELL!!

[hakeber]

awww, you poor thing!  I think it was around that age that I started wearing my hair in a super slicked back bun with DS. 

The thing I did with DS when he was violent (biting, pinching, hitting, etc.) was I would very calmly, first offenze, swoop him up and take him to his crib and sit in his room with him until he calmed down and from a safe distance explain "we don't pull hair.  Will you pull hair again?  No?  Okay." and as soon as he lost control of that impulse again he'd go back to the safe place.  It took about a week to get through, of steady removal, discussion, hug, play, removal, discussion, hug, play, etc etc.  I think I did it once like five times in a day, but with calm, non-reactional, firmness and consistency it went away.

In the meantime, you might consider wearing your hair up and away. 

Don't feel too bad.  I bit DS once when he was small.  I didn't like myself very much, but on the other hand its sort of an animalistic instinct to nip when you're being mauled 24/7.

[zuzunel09]

My son is the same age and does the SAME THING.  He thinks it's hilarious, especially in the morning while I'm still in bed.  I gently tugged his hair today but that just made him laugh more.  I don't have any good advice, I just try to redirect him or get my hair out of the way.  Time outs have not worked for this issue. 

[D_McG]

It worked here to calmly put them down and ignore them. If they wanted to be picked back up I'd just say (for a while... like 15 minutes?) "No. you hurt me" and carry on with my day.

Yelling, time outs, etc just made it worse. And I'm not opposed to T/O at all really. It just didn't work.