Hitting and throwing - I'm at the end of my rope.

All I want is one. single. day. without being hit or having something thrown at me. I am seriously at the end of my tether, my gentle parenting ideals are flying out of the window and when he hits me just out of the blue I just want to thump him back, hard, to show him how awful it feels. Nothing is working - I've tried every strategy I know. I've tried ignoring bad behaviour and just reinforcing good, I've tried sitting down and talking about it, 'time in', I've tried warning him when he throws and then just taking the toy away the next time (he's now down to the dregs of his toys and he's soon going to lose them too with the mood I'm in. I've tried thinking at it differently and just figuring that maybe right now he just needs to be able to throw stuff so I've provided an alternative environment where it is okay, to get the urge out. NOTHING WORKS.
I know he's tired for a fair portion of the day because he's dropped his day sleep, much to my dismay. But this is getting ridiculous. Other than these two things he just the most wonderful little man - we have no other issues whatsoever - it would all be harmonius and respectful and wonderful except for the DAMN HITTING AND THROWING STUFF!!!
I can't wait for daycare to go back at this point. I'd rather write my uni essays than have to be around my child - how awful is that???

Oh and I've looked at diet as well, no obvious culprits - I tried cutting out the one thing I suspected but it made no difference.
Oh and I meant to say I'd ideally like to come at this from a gentle, unconditional parenting perspective but I'm losing my biccies along with my cool so that's getting harder!!

:hug: I'm going through a similar thing with my oldest, maybe it's a stage as there is not much difference in their ages. Hope things get better very soon :hug:

On my phone so I can't write much, but I'll try and come back later. My Ds1 went through something similar a few weeks ago when we started dropping the nap. For me it simply wasn't worth having the feral behavior so I could get him to sleep before 9pm, do we went back to having a nap and the behavior has pretty much disappeared. We still have the odd day here and there when he doesn't have a nap, and the behavior doesn't return, but I also make sure that we don't have 2 consecutive days without a nap. HTH

If tiredness is a trigger can you run him ragged in the morning and drive somewhere/walk in the pram and see if he'll nod off?

Sorry no advice, but I can't believe it's already started with my one year old...*sigh*...it's a long journey.

I am going through this as well with my 2.5 DS. Throwing / breaking stuff driving me insane. Had to remove all rocks from the back yard as he was throwing them at the neighbors window!!.

My DD went through the same thing, although I don't think she threw things as much, but she certainly hit, kicked, broke things etc. She grew out of it and is now an amazing 4 year old.

The only advice I have is get outside, parks, beach, places where he can do physical activities and be messy. All those things you are trying are what I use and different days different things work. You are doing a great job and he will grow out of it.

I feel for you hun. My DS, now 2, has always been a thrower. I call him a mini tornado. He simply throws anything he can get his hands on. Communication is still very limited between us, so I can't tell him 'you're going to the naughty corner if you do this or that'. A couple of weeks ago he looked like he was handing me the cordless phone, but when he got closer to me he threw it at my face and almost broke my tooth and lip. I had the biggest, sore lip ever for a couple of days. I think that's parent abuse!! lol. He just thinks it's funny and keeps throwing things, now even at strangers which is not on. I'm planing to put him in childcare a couple of days a week, but I'm worried that he'll throw things at the other kids. We go to playgroup and I watch him like a hawk but he's OK there. I really hope for your DS's sake and mine that it's just a stage.