Younger twin becoming very aggressive

TwinMama

Wed, Jan 20 2010, 11:40 pm

KA"H my twins are 15 months and walking. The younger of the two just started walking recently while the older twin has been walking for the past few months. Nevertheless, the younger one has become incredibly aggressive and the minute we reprimand her she bursts into tears. She's very sensitive but it's clearly a defense mechanism.

A new behavior we saw today involved grabbing her sister's shirt and pulling her back to grab whatever was in her hands. Both girls have really sweet dispositions but I'm not really sure how to handle this aggression. The aggression has been building up and whenever her sister has anything she runs after her to grab it, but today's behavior was a little ridiculous. I told her no and put her in timeout. She got up a second later (hysterical obviously) and tried to go after her sister again, put her back down said no, so I stood by her for about 10 seconds then I let her get up, calmed her down and got them ready for the bath.

As soon as I put them in the bath she (the aggressor) started slapping her sister's back and trying to take away every toy she had in her hands. I kept saying no and pulling her away after a few times she got it but that's because I was standing right over her. When nobody's around her sister usually ends up crying.

Any suggestions would be incredibly appreciated. Whether it's different forms of discipline (no hitting please), or just even different strategies to teach her how to be less aggressive, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance!