HELP LO is banging her head everywhere

[luckyten]

Hello Mums

I am very concerned about my LO she is 13 months old and she has started to bang her head against the mirror , door and floor. I have never experienced this before with her and I am scared that she will hurt herself. I realise she does it when she wants attention or to make herself cry worse.

Is this normal for a baby to do this?

I have done some research and they say that 20% of babies especially boys but my lo is a girl and I am sooo frightened

 

[emsiee]

My LO does it in anger or frustration too, not all of the time, but most times when shes throwing a tantrum or throws herself backwards. I wouldnt worry, I think its quite normal for children to hit out on themselves in anger, be it biting, banging themselves etc...

Yes, I do worry that Jessica will hurt herself, but tbh, I think shes realising very quickly that shes gonna hurt HERSELF more.........I tell her no firmly or I just ignore her if I dont think shes hurt herself that bad (which is very likely most of the time) or she has a tendancy to throw herself back when I pick up her sometimes (if she wants to tantrum) and then I will just put her down on the rug at home, leave her to tantrum and walk away

 

[Kitten]

Theakston started this around the same time I think. We just ignored it unless he was really hurt (which was rare) and he soon learnt it didn't get him any attention.

 

[wellyboot]

Don't know if it will help, but I was an awful toddler and a head-banger. My parents used to completely ignore me when I did it (although I do vaguely remember one time when I was banging my head on the floor, sitting up and telling my dad that my head hurt, and he said GOOD!), but it did take me a long time to grow out of it.

I'm now normal (well, relatively!) and have achieved well academically so it didn't have any long term effects on me.

My parents just used all the headbanging stories to tell my boyfriends and at my wedding - start saving them up!!

Welly xx

 

[luckyten]

Thanks mums

Its a real help to know im not the only one

 

[~RedLily~]

My LO went through this phase as well.

 

[Mee_Mummy]

My DS is still in this phase... xx

 

[keepontrying]

perfectly normal and very common.

It can be for a number of reasons:
Experimenting - creating and action that causes something, then repetition when they realise their actions are having a certain effect.

Tantrum - anger and frustration, they cannot comunicate in any other way so this is an affective tool to let you know they are not happy!

Attention - if you are responding or reacting to this, stop..... Because you could be teaching her that this is how to capture mums attention. Better to use a distraction technique even saying ' wow, come look out the window - what can we see?' or completely ignoring if its tantrum based (children will push as hard as they can to win a mini war with you, even at such a young age)

if she hurts herself enough she will stop and it will be a long way before any real danage is caused. This behaviour can manifest itself in other ways, smacking/ biting themselves and others, throwing things / touching what they know they shouldnt etc

good luck x