Baby is hitting me

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Hi.

Mom of 7-year-old Aspie and now our 21-month-old baby has autistic spectrum disorder.

The baby has started to hit me. Scratch me. Dig his little claws into my arms. I know he's frustrated. Any success stories out there of handling this?

I have tried (sad face) ouch! that hurts Mommy. I'm sad. We don't hit. Hug him. kiss him. Give him love and affection (you know, what they tell ya to do!)

Not working. Getting worse! He really hurt me today.

I wonder of some sort of deep pressure or some kind of sensory treatment could help. Alright. I will try that. But, please...in the meantime...throw me some ideas!

I'm all ears.

My AS son used to bite me as a baby, particularly on the neck and shoulders - ouch! I would growl him and tell him it hurt and "no", while immediately physically distancing myself from him by putting him in his cot. Once he'd had some time out I would go and say no more biting etc. - no hugs until a bit later when he had "earned respect" again. Once you have repeated this immediate reaction over a period of time, it seems to work.

I agree that it is probably a sensory issue and maybe there is something else you could do as well (others may have ideas), but they still need to also get the message that hitting and biting is unacceptable.

repetition over time may help.......it's possible you just haven't cued into what some of babies triggers are yet. maybe there's something else going on that's bothering baby ?

To cut back on my kid's biting, clawing and hitting we started using a yelp of pain (like a dog yip) to mark the unacceptable moment followed by setting him on the ground. If he followed up with another chomp or a hit, then I would pick him back up and hold him in my lap, rocking, facing out for a count of 25. It would sometimes take a while before the counting was completed, but it helped. It did take a lot of work. At that age they just can't express what they want or what's bothering them. He did start to catch on eventually.

The new thing we are working on is "law". Certain things are against the law and therefore forbidden. (Riding without a seat belt, out of his car seat, hitting, biting.)

Recently, we were able to get him to catch on that he can ask for a time out if he wants one. (He's highly verbal.) For us a time out isn't punishment, it just means that you need space.

Thank you for your input!

I will try anything. Today as older brother was kissing baby good bye before he got onto the school bus, baby hit older brother on the head as hard as he could. Wack! You should have seen the look on my 7-year-old's face. He was so hurt (his feelings) and said "Ouch - why did he hit me? I was kissing him good bye. I was loving him."

Baby is jealous that older brother gets to get on the school bus! Baby wants to get on the school bus too!

(this isn't the only situation though, there are many different times when baby will hit, or scratch, or dig - usually when he is mad about something)

I will try all your different techniques above. I know eventually something will work. I survived the first one, this one has got to be easier (yeah right!....only because I am more experienced this time around! But still, there are many differences between them.)

We all know that children with autism have difficulty coomunicating so they often use hitting as a method of getting your attention to get what he/she wants or protecting his/her territory. What you need to do is to know what triggers the attacks.

There is a children's book titled "Teeth are not for biting" I think while reading the story to your child it could very easily be adapted to "nails are not for scratching"

I know with my son it was it was repitition that worked.

I hope the baby has stopped biting. He's about 10 years old now.