21-month-old hitting and sometimes bitting when frustrated or mad. Any gentle/conscious parenting tips?

My LO is starting to be quite difficult to negotiate with on absolutely anything and now when we’ve had to force her to do something (like siting on her carseat or buckling up) she started to be aggressive.

As of yesterday, I started to teach her to take a deep breath and hug herself tight whenever she feels angry or frustrated and if she starts hitting me or try to bite me instead of saying no and reacting, I’m calmly telling her I don’t like it when she hits me because it hurst and I won’t let her do that. She sort of responded better to that approach already, but I’m not sure if it will work. 😔

Any other things I can try?

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Hitting: remove yourself from her. Set the boundary. “Mom will not let you hit her.” She’s too young to understand reason but will understand a consequence (like losing access to you physically for a minute).

Biting: redirecting to something she CAN bite. “Hey I know you’re frustrated! But you can’t bite people. When you want to bite, you can bite this”

It’s all about consistency and boundaries! I hope these help and you can get past this! Just remember, both of those things are SUPER normal for the age range. It’s their way of communicating when frustrated.

Oh my gosh, thank you for asking this because I’ve been wondering the same thing! This toddler stage ain’t for the weak.😅
Thank you for the awesome suggestion !🫶🏻

I have a book about teeth are not for biting i started reading my toddler before it gets to that point so highly recommend finding one you like online

Thank you! My LO loves books. Will do that too.

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