u/ATmomma

My toddler hits my husband and I when she is frustrated about something. For example, getting dressed, we ask her to help taking her shirt off and she doesn’t want to so she smacks our arm/leg. When going to do bedtime when she doesn’t want to, she punched me. When she hits us we remove ourselves from the situation when we can, but a lot of times it is when we are helping her get dressed or trying to leave the house and we are on a time crunch.

We have tried telling her that hitting is mean and hurts, and that we do not hurt people. Every time she hits us we say “do not hit me, that hurts”. We read Hands are Not for Hitting and Llama Llama and the Bully Goat. She was receptive to the books, but then continued to hit.

She does not hit at daycare, and it seems to only happen with my husband and I (mom and dad) and not any other adults in her life.

I’m not sure what else to do, I’m worried that if we don’t get this behavior to stop that she will get stronger and actually injure one of us.

My baby is 3 weeks old and has been gaining weight very slowly. We saw a IBCLC this weekend who said she is not transferring milk very well and I should supplement and pump with every feed. The IBCLC thinks she will improve her latch and transfer as she gets bigger and stronger (currently only 6lb 6oz and was 6lb 5oz at birth).

It has been a struggle since she was born to keep her awake enough to latch and stay latched, especially at night time. Since the addition of bottles to each feed, my baby has become increasingly fussy when I try to latch her and she pops off almost immediately. I can’t get her to stay latched or even interested in the breast for more than 5 mins.

If I switch to exclusively pumping, is there a chance of going back to EBF? I don’t want her to end up failing to thrive, and I know that I do not currently produce enough for her (working on that too). I struggled with supply with my first and had high hopes for this time around. I am really struggling with the idea of losing our breastfeeding journey so quickly and I am trying so hard to stay optimistic.