Head banging?

we are having massive issues with DD head butting any thing when she doesnt get her way...
i honestly dont know if im meant to ignore it or console her i know it would hurt a lot! this morning i jumped in the shower and wouldnt take her cardian off so she head butted the door frame..
at bed time its the cot rails...
then of course she screams cos it hurts.. she has 3 eggs on her forehead ATM from it
i have tried talking to her about it saying she doesnt need to hurt her self she can just use her words...
she is 20months( i know terrific 2s just around the corner) but im sure she will do some serious damage soon
any ideas?

We have had similar issues with our DS. His was part of a temper tantrum or when he was tired. At first I would console him and tell him not to do it, then he kept on doing them. He was getting red patches on his forehead. I started to ignore them (well pretend to ignore them!) as I could see many of them he was doing for my benefit to get a reaction out of me or to get what he wanted. Once I started ignoring him and pretending to busy myself with something else he realised I wasn't making a fuss anymore and they died out. He only does the odd one here and there now, about once a month. His started at around the same age, unfortunately the terrible twos start before 2. Go figure! Best of luck with it. Btw I was told that they can't really hurt themselves too much, unless they are banging on something they can break of course.

oh she is hurting her self alright... she has the bath matt imprint on her head from last night..and she likes to choose things with edges..

Leo is doing the same thing at the moment - he is 21 months. The other night he was throwing a tantrum so I lay him down on the rug and walked away from him (this was what I used to do with Jackson, just completely ignore) so he started headbutting the floor and actually gave himself a blood nose before I realised what he was doing. Was pretty awful. Today a boy took a train off him at Baby Bunting, so Leo headbutted him, thankfully it didn't hurt the boy (& his mother didn't see!!)

I hold his head in between my hands and say "No! That hurts Leo" and then lie him down and walk away if he is still throwing a tantrum and try my best to ignore him unless he is going to really hurt himself.