[Doodalicious]

Been happening a few weeks now, when he's REALLY annoyed (usually if he wants to do something and I'm not letting him, or I have taken away the interesting but not allowable object he's just helped himself to) he will start by sitting down very suddenly, yelling, and then will bang his forehead on the ground, quite hard. I can't stand it, I am not able to ignore it (and he probably realises this). I have tried picking him up and putting him in his cot for a minute or two - where he screams like crazy until I get him back out. I've tried telling him not to do it, distracting him, I even smacked his hand once and he didn't even seem to notice. He is in such a rage when he does it that I'm not sure anything will help, but I can't ignore him or he'll just do it again and again.

Is this common and what should I be doing when he does it?

[kay7]

My son is doing this as well at the moment, I know it's hard to ignore, but try ! Some times I throw a pillow under Jai's head when his doing it or move him to a soft floor. Once he calms down I give him comfort because it can be really scary for him to lose control like that.

I'm hoping this stage won't go on for long though M

This post has been edited by kay7: 27/03/2012, 10:33 AM

[mayahlb]

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This post has been edited by mayahlb: 09/09/2012, 08:27 PM

[in(s)ane]

Move him to a soft mat or put a pillow under his head and ignore. I know it's really hard to do, but the more you give any attention to this behavior the longer it will continue. Check with your dr if it will make you feel better; ours advised a child's head is built for this sort of thing and they won't do themselves any permanent damage.

[redkris]

Both my younger brother and DS did this from about 12-24 months...my brother was much worse, he actually had a permanent lump on his head! I think mum stopped it with him by picking him up and tightly cuddling him till he wound down, eventually he started coming for the cuddles and skipped the tanty alltogether.
DS was never that bad, so we just let him do it until he grew out of it.
I think I remember reading somewhere that toddlers actually get a bit of a pay-off from this behaviour as they get a chemical "rush" from their brains along with the pain...

[EmmaBlue]

My DS does it also,,, he was doing it for a while so I just tried to ignore as much as possible and then it stopped when he realised I wasn't responding to him like he wanted...
Then he went through a stage of rapidly stomping his feet when he gets frustrated, and now we get a combination of both depending on what mood he is in... but I have found that when he does hit his head it seems ot be harder than before...

My DS is 17 months... how old is yours?

I am guessing mine is getting frustrated as he can't communicate what he wants but hoping that it will calm down once he starts talking and can communicate better?

[Doodalicious]

Sorry, I should have said - he's 19 months old.
Also, something I first noticed on the weekend is that he clearly understands that he's not meant to bang his head on the floor. After he had calmed down from a tantrum (this time when he started I picked him up and bear hugged him, struggling, until he calmed down, and I told him that he was "NOT to bang his head"). he then sat on the floor and mimicked head banging while saying "NOT" and then put his hands down on the floor saying "hands - YESSSS!", which I told him was "good, yes, not to bang your head, yes". Of course he probably interpreted that as me telling him it's quite fine to slap the floor with his hands when he's crabby, but whatever.

This post has been edited by Splatterpuss81: 27/03/2012, 11:40 AM

[Livsh]

totally normal behaviour...which is an odd thing to say about a child banging their head on the floor!

It's pretty self limiting behaviour and if you ignore it they do grow out of it....my two did it for about three months each....it was when they were developing their language skills and were getting really frustrated.

[**Clair**]

my ds started doing that when he was about 13 months and grew out of it (mostly) b the time he was 19 months, although he still does it sometimes if he is angry enough. i just ignored it.

[bella_75]

My DD is 20 months old and this started about 2 months ago. We do not have carpet at all in our house, so I get really worried when she goes straight to the ground and starts banging. I have moved her to her cot before so she could bang on her matress. The tantrum doesn't last long, but I am worried in that 30 second outburst that she may hurt herself.