Hoping for some reassurance here - DS is 13 months old, and I fear is developing my short temper! He is easily frustrated and often bangs his head against a wall (or any hard surface really) if he can't do something or doesn't get what he wants. I try to minimise/avoid situations I know frustrate him but this past week he's been banging his head ALL day, I swear the other day he would have hit it at least 100 times - he has bruises on his forehead!!! He's getting molars at the moment and not sleeping well so I'm hoping it's just that he's extra tired and feeling unwell but has anyone else experienced this? I don't really know how to deal with it other than to remove him from the situation, if I ignore it he keeps banging his head. I'm attributing it to frustration but I have to admit I am concerned it could be a sign of something else...
Hi Lise,
I've had some of my own concerns with my DS who is 17 months old, except that he is flapping his arms and kicking his legs when he is super excited or really frasturated (tends to do it more when he's tired too). I was really concerned about it so my DF and I went to see his paed and he told us that his opinion was that he does it mostly out of frastration as he can't really talk yet (only has a couple of words) so that's his way of communicating his feelings. He said that he'll probably stop it once he's walking. The point to my story is that he said other toddlers bang their heads, throw their head back, or rock back and forth. He said that toddlers express their emotions in different ways. My DS has his molars coming through too, so is not sleeping great ATM, although there has been an improvement of late. Regardless of my paed's opinion, I am still planning to get him assessed in case there is some sort of problem/delay that can be fixed/helped. He's been late in rolling/sitting up/crawling/walking so I want to make sure that if some sort of intervention is needed we are on the ball. GL with it hun, but if you are worried go and see your GP or even get him seen by a paed if you're still worried.
B.
I don't have any advice, but a little reassurance that it isn't always a sign of the more sinister things we're always afraid of when we see head banging. My DD2 was a real head banger from, ooh, 7 months? Temper, frustration, DD1 getting something she wanted, not being allowed to play in the toilet water etc. She has only recently stopped doing it (mostly) now she lies on her back on the floor with her sad little face till I come over (much better reaction). In our case, I was feeding it by my reaction - it took all my strength to ignore it and not look/react/stop her from hurting herself until she'd stopped and pretend I hadn't noticed, as with this one, she doesn't seem to mind a negative reaction either. I then went over the top with lashings of attention and rasberrys and googling if she gave any other reaction - hence the lying on the back thing now. You could try something similar. It's so hard though, especially when they constantly have a bruise on their forehead! Talk to your health professional about it if you're concerned, or there are other concerning behaviours associated with it. Hope it stops soon for you.
No helpful advice except to check the ingredients list on any packaged foods he may eat for something called "annatto" or "natural coloring 160b". If it's in anything he eats regularly cut it out completely for a week or two and see if the head-banging improves. This additive is apparently a common culprit for head-banging but often overlooked as it is "natural".
ETA: it's a yellow coloring - often in processed cheese, custard, fruit bars, yoghurts, but worth checking everything just in case.
Last edited by Shades; August 25th, 2011 at 08:19 PM.
Thanks for your replies ladies. I've been watching him over the last few days and it seems to be happening when he's tired (which unfortunately is all the time ATM as he's only sleeping for 15 mins during the day - but that's a whole other thread!!) and frustrated. He's just so incredibly wilful though - yesterday he started hitting his head against the back of the high chair because he could see the nurofen and I wouldn't give it to him!!! He doesn't display any other worrying behaviours (and I've checked the fridge/pantry thanks Shades!) so I'm just trying to ignore it as best as I can...
Constant head banging???
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