I don't know how to deal with this!

Parenting is so hard! My 16 month old is a hitter - not hard enough to hurt anyone, but it's happening pretty often. He doesn't hit out of frustration, it's strictly for attention (only child, only grandchild, only great-grandchild, only nephew... He is used to having all the attention).

We have worked really hard at it and we redirect his attention to other things when he hits. We stopped feeding into it by overreacting and we give our attention to the person he hit. It has not helped. He's been hitting for 2 months now.

My daycare provider has now given us 6 weeks to correct his behavior or she will no longer care for him. Other children in her care are upset and so are their parents so I understand why she's made this decision.

I'm desperate to make this stop before the end of the 6 weeks. My son absolutely loves his care provider and so do I. I also have a work situation that is nearly impossible to find a daycare provider for.

Please, someone, tell me I'm not alone and tell me what you did to curb the hitting 😭😭 I made an appointment with a child psychologist next week, but I'm open to any and all ideas!