All Communities > Toddler Moms > What to do about head banging?

What to do about head banging?

Abby - posted on 11/07/2011 ( 4 moms have responded )

13

66

My oldest son is 2 years old. He has been having some pretty bad tantrums lately. If he is told not to do something that he shouldn't be doing or gets in trouble for something, or if i'm feeding his little brother, he will throw himself to the floor and start crying and throwing his body around and then he will bang his head on the floor. If he is standing up he walk up to the counter or the wall crying and then he will bang his head on that. He also does it sometimes when he gets frustrated. But if he hits his head on accident he will say oww and start to rub it or saw oww and cry. Any ideas on what I can do to help prevent this from happening or to get him to stop? I'm scared he is gonna hurt himself one of these times.

Join Circle of Moms

Sign up for Circle of Moms and be a part of this community! Membership is just one click away.

Join Circle of Moms

4 Comments

View replies by

Kellie - posted on 11/12/2011

7

3

My daughter started this when she was about 18 months. We ignored it (unless it was on a window - then we moved her). She stopped, but now hits herself in the head with her hand. It happens when she's angry or being told off, so we're trying to ignore it and hope this one stops, too!

Megan - posted on 11/11/2011

1

0

my son used to do the exact same thing when he would have a tantrum and we had a health nurse thet used to come to the house and i had brought that up because i was concerned about it as weel. she had told me just to ignore it even though its hard too but eventually he would stop doing it when he realized he wouldnt get attention by doing it. and he would also stop when he realized it was starting to hurt. and sure enough i just ignored it and he did stop within a few days :)

Summer - posted on 11/09/2011

203

44

my daughter did that EXACT same thing.... I would just putmy hand or foot between her head and whatever she was trying to headbutt... and it JUST stopped one day.... she hasnt done it in over a month.... they dont have a lot of ways to epress their feelings or emotions.... that seems to work... he will out grow it,

Tara - posted on 11/08/2011

502

23

My son did this exact same thing as well around that age, might have even started a bit before 2. He just turned 3 and doesn't do it anymore. It really scared me when he did it as sometimes he would get a bruise. I asked a lot of friends about it (ones with older kids) and read some things online about it and apparently it is normal, just one of those things some kids do to express their frustration as they don't know how to. When he did it I would hold his arms/hug him and say how much I love him and that there are other things to do when upset (like tell mommy, go up to your room and hit your pillow etc) However at times he would still do it during a tantrum and nothing would stop him so I would send him to his room because I didn't want to see him do it because it upset me. This really helped because sometimes its for more attention. He will grow out of it in time. I found that if I paid a lot of attention to it he did it more. As hard as it is to ignore, you of course don't want him to hurt himself. Just another phase. Hang in there!! Also, at the time I went on here with the same question and I had some tell me to take him to the doctors asap because there must be something seriously wrong with him so watch out for that as there honestly isn't anything wrong with him!! The only way I would be concern is if it doesn't stop as he gets older.

Powered by RESPECT not THUMPS

Want to find out the opinions of this community?

Add Poll