Alien lifeforms have stolen my sweet baby

[Tinas3muskateers]

And left me a possesed toddler. When I redirect him he sticks his tongue out, spits at me, bites me, hits me, shall I go on? He is starting to do mean things. He wouldnt stop running over my 90 year old grandmother tonight with his riding toy. Her feet are in real bad shape and he kept doing it. I took the toy away of course but then he screamed, bit me, scratched me, and gave me a raspberry. Some things are safty issues, like tonight he would stop touching my stove, on and off with the knobs, and he jacked the oven up to 500 while my lasanga was cooking, thank god I check often or would have had charbroiled lasanga. He just doesnt listen at all and I was so overwheelmed by him today. How can I be GD and Positive when he is biting me , spitting at me and hitting me as I try to redirect him? I try the shock value of giving him something new and exciting or do something silly, or show him something interesting... but if he is mad he will bite me or just be mean. I miss my sweet, nursing , loveable and gentle baby

[georgia]

Has anything changed recently in the rhythm of his life to knock things out of balance (we're still not over the time change here!)...Have you been under more stress than usual? Is he near a half or whole birthday? Teething? Is he watching a lot of television? Eating not-as-healthy foods? When I run down my list of "why-is-this-happening" and run out of ideas, I usually chalk it up to the enormous challenges of toddlerhood and remind myself that, someday, sooner than later (!) it will pass.

[marincarrie]

Hi--I have these kinds of issues with my son, who is now 32 months. It sounds like you might have had people over, unless your grandmother lives with you. My son gets overwhelmed really easily when we have family over, even family that he knows really well. It seems that when I am busy getting things on the table, talking to people, he sort of ups the intensity.

What I've done in the past that really seems to work, is to take him to another room for a minute to kind of take a break. We use this a lot--it's not time out, but rather a chance to him to calm down and re-group. The last time this happened, I put a video on for him, gave him a few crackers and just let him chill out for 20 minutes. When he was ready to come back, he was fine.

Just an idea...hope this helps!
~Carrie & Boden (8-19-03)

[Tinas3muskateers]

I read this somewhere, a Time in , instead of Time out. A time he can gather his thoughts and emotions. It happens with company over or just us at home. But you are right its mostly when around other people. Tonight my father was holding him on his lap and all was good untill Isaiah started scratching my fathers face. My dad imediatly put him down and then picked him back up to talk to him about how to touch nicely etc.. well ISaiah then raspberried him and my dad wasnt too happy wtih that so he put him back down and told him he wasnt playing with him untill he could act nicer. Then Isaiah cried untill papa picked him back up. But he didnt do it again. I think he realized he hurt his feelings. Now tonight as I got him ready for bed he swung at me and then raspberried me and bit the bed. He is in bed now, lets see how well that goes lol

[Mama8]

I am right there with you! My 2 1/2 yr old hits, raspberries, scratches, bites and screams. What we have found out that many times she is doing this when she can't say what she wants to say. So we have started saying for her what we think she is wanting to say. When we do understand her it usually calms her down. Sometimes it's "Do you want Daddy to hold you too?" and she will nod her head and climb in his lap other times it is help with big emotions "Are you mad? You look very mad!" Other times it is because she is tired, hungry or overstimulated. As she has gotten older and as we have been working on really trying to understand what she is trying to say the incidences have decreased. I can even fore-see a time when she won't be doing these things. Something I questioned just a few months ago. When nothing we try works and she continues to hurt someone we scoop her up and take her to another room until she is ready to be calmer. We don't leave her alone but we don't try to impose on her either in those moment because it tends to wind her up more we just ever so often ask if she wants to cuddle. We know the storm is over when she will climb up in our laps (usually her daddy's) and want to be held.
With son riding over Grandma's feet I would have taken and put the trike up and taken son with me to another room until he was ready to be around Grandma again, without hurting her.
for the stove I would put on those safety covers. and a put a gate up to the kitchen. Prevention is probably your safest bet. I have found my 2 1/2 yr old actually on the stove We have 6 gates in our house just for safety sake. 2 on the bathroom doors (likes to flood it and spread toothpaste and soap everywhere) 2 on stairs , 1 on the laundry room (too many cleaning supplies in there and a water filled diaper pail), 1 to the kitchen of course. We have even had to get the taller ones that are harder to climb. We do not lock or child in any room, we just try to protect her from hurting herself. Oh we also have a knob cover for the front door because our little one who does not like to wear clothes likes to go for walks in the street: grabbing nude dd:


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