Need Help!! I Have a 16 Month Old Son Who Wont Stop Pulling Hair!!

my daughter did the same thing. There really is no way to punish a child that young. I had handeled the stiuation by just finally putting my hair up. Good luck and I hopes this help.

I agree with the others, pull his hair right back, he will get the picture real fast. Besides I have never seen anyone who could talk or reason a young child into doing anything.

My son 14 months use to pull our daughter 3 years very curly long hair all the time until one day she pulled his hair very hard he stopped! He just may not understand what exactly he is doing. Try explaining hard and soft and give him examples. And We start timeouts in our household at age 1 using the highchair as the timeout spot. Works well.

Put your hair in a pony tail and when yu see him reaching for someone else hair move his hand

mine weren't hair-pullers so i can't say from personal experience that this works but when they pull your hair, their punishment is that you put them down immediately. hopefully they make the connection that pulling hair = no cuddling from mommy.

same goes for biters. good luck!

You might consider going ahead and doing a time out. If your 4 year old gets time outs, then your 16-month old sure knows what it is and that it probably isn't any fun. Start with a minute or a minute and a half and just see if that works. If it doesn't, try something else. He also might need to experience what pulling hair feels like to gain empathy. Good luck!

I know it sounds awful but you might have to pull his hair to show him how it feels. He might not get that it actually hurts. He might just stop if he understands that. Good Luck.

No uproars here! I too had to pull my daughters hair to help her understand that it hurt when she pulled mine. I would say though that if you do it to your son and he doesn't seem to get the idea after a few times, you could possibly send the wrong message. You could also try removing his hands from your hair and ask him to pull his own hair- guiding his hands to his head for him...

Kids seem to have a hard time understanding their strength and controlling their excitement at this age which can lead to heavy-handedness, slapping mommy, or poking eyes (usually mommy's:), you just need to keep reminding them or soft and hard, or gentle, or whatever words you use. Probably for a while:)

I have a son who used to pull hair too, right around the same age that yours is. I too, tried time out, talking, no no, all of it. You know what worked for me? I pulled his hair back. Boy, he didn't like it, and he didn't pull my hair anymore! I think he thought it was funny, without thinking that it hurt. So, when I tugged on his hair, he got the idea that that could hurt! (of course, i didn't pull hard, before everyone gets in an uproar) Good Luck!

The "terrible twos" generally start at 18 months, and can start earlier than that. If he's old enough to be doing something that he knows he shouldn't be doing, he's old enough to be disciplined for it. A minute or two on a time out chair sure wouldn't hurt anything. You might read John Rosemond's "Making the Terrible Twos Terrific". It's the best parenting book I've read, with common sense approaches and lots of ideas and strategies, along with explanations for why they (kiddos, 2s) do the things they do.

If he is doing it to lash out (when he is frustrated or angry with you), then I would start to implement a time out. The high chair works great... but only a minute or two, since he really isn't old enough to truly understand punishment but he may start to get the picture, especially since he may have seen big sister get a time out. Just be as animated as possible when explaining that a behavior is not okay, use his hand, take it to your hair and explain that mommy hurts (or "owie" or whatever works to describe pain) when his hand pulls your hair. Our hurt word accidentally became "hot" and now my daughter knows that if something is "hot" then it hurts and she should not do it or touch it.

If he is doing it because he likes the way hair feels but doesn't understand that it hurts, let him have a toy or something with hair from your 4 year old and try to explain that he only touches the toys hair, not anyone elses. My daughter loves to tickle but was hurting us, so we taught her to only tickle her Elmo doll and she responded well to that.

Good luck!

I would talk to your doctor. I am not a mom but I am a daughter. I am almost 16 years old and have been compulsivly pulling my hair since 4th grade and can't stop. There is a rare form of OCD where people pull their hair and eat it, it's called trichotillomania. It may just be a short habit but I would talk to your doctor to see if it is the OCD and if it is, to stop it because if you don't stop it at the beginning it is seemingly impossible to end. I've been trying to stop and can't control it. I'm glad you've noticed this at an early age, I would definitely talk to your doctor.