For the last 3 weeks my 16 month old has been driving me nuts with hiting, biting, and pinching.

He pinches for any reason and no reason. Sometimes it seems to be to get attention. Sometimes it seems like he does it absentmindedly while nursing. Sometimes he just seems like he's curious about what different pieces of skin feel like when they're squeezed. Both Sweetie and I have been really consistent in responding with "Ouch! No pinching. Pinching hurts" and trying to re-direct his attention. If he's pinching while nursing he gets cut off after two nos.

Biting is sometimes playful -but painful!-, sometimes out of frustration (like when we're trying to put him down to bed), and sometimes while nursing (for no reason I can figure out). We've stopped doing any kind of playful biting with him like pretending to eat him. When he bites, we're trying to be super consistent about responding with just "ouch, no. No biting, biting hurts" and redirecting him. He generally gets cut off from nursing immediately if he bites since he's been biting hard enough to break skin.

Hitting almost always occurs when he's excited. We try to calm him down (dark, quiet, soothing voice, deep breaths) or redirect to something where that kind of physical energy is ok (bouncy toys, going outside). We respond with "ouch! hands are not for hitting, hitting hurts"

How long does it take to stop this kind of behavior? It is exhausting to be so careful about responding consistently. And it hurts. I have several bites with broken skin, one of my nipples scraped open a little bit from being pinched, I got a bloody nose from being head-butted. It feels really out of control.