head butting 15 month old

Sarah - posted on 01/05/2010

Wow, Renee! That definitely is really bad. Hayden has gotten a few red bumps on his head but nothing quite to that extent.. and I'm hoping it doesn't get to that point. Please let me know how your appointment goes though, just in case I do need to go that route if he does get worse. Hopefully it is just a phase that will pass but it definitely isn't fun when he gets all upset and headbutts something and if we try to get him to stop THAT'S when he gets upset and cries.

Renee - posted on 01/04/2010

My son is 20 mos old and will "head butt" anything that is hard...floor, walls, window ledge, coffee table, etc. He will also hit himself in the head with his fists, sippy cup, toys, etc. My ped said it is a normal "phase" for children to go through and normally don't hurt themselves doing it. My son is different however. He is leaving dark bruising and "goose eggs" on his head. I took my son into the ped when his head was all bruised and swollen to show her the extent of his head banging and referred me to a developmental and behavioral specialist. We have that apt in 2 weeks. We had done the ignoring, distracting, re-directing, time outs, etc and nothing really seemed to work. There is a difference between the "tantrum" head banging and the "other" head banging. When my son has a tantrum and bangs his head in, he does it lighter than other times. He will also say "ouch" and keep doing it. I also video taped him doing it to show the ped what he is doing as well because I was so concerned with the extent of what he was doing.

Jennifer - posted on 01/04/2010

My 3yr old son does this, not so much anymore. I asked my pedia about it and she said that sometimes it can just be the rythem. So I got him a child rocking chair. He stopped for the most part, its soothing in some way. But if he does it untill it hurts im not sure. Depending on if he will understand, you should get him a pillow and tell him thats his "angry pillow" and get him to headbutt that, so he does not hurt himself or anyone else. He will grow out of it as he gets older. Good Luck

Sheila - posted on 01/03/2010

my 18 monthson headbutts walls and puts is head to a summersault position all the time i dont no what there obsession is but they sure love there head

Sarah - posted on 01/03/2010

Haha well thank you all for the advice! I kinda figured it was just going to take time for him to get over it, but it's driving me insane. I am 6 months pregnant and my son is constantly running up and headbutting me right in the head or in my stomach or pretty much wherever he can. He has been headbutting my husbands knees and elbows and walls...all sorts of things.. I know it hurts him but he continues to do it. Hopefully it will pass...for all of us haha!

Ashley - posted on 01/02/2010

Haha....I have been going through the same thing for several months with my 17 month old twins. I have no clue how to stop it.

I do however have advice for the times he does it as part of a temper fit or to seek major attention.

One of my boys does it as part of his fit throwing and he will stop and look up to see if we are watching. When he does this I look the other way or walk out of the room (just outside the door). It seems to be working in those situations as it has reduced this part of the head butting.

However, both boys are still head butting us, the floor, the couch and eachother. My ped said it was perfectly normal. Kids have hard heads for a reason. Kids fall and bump their heads a lot harder than my dudes ever head butt anything.

I try to be consistent and tell my boys not to head butt. No real progress.

Good luck. Although, I think all I did was tell you that you have at least 2 or 3 more months of this. lol

Jodi - posted on 01/02/2010

my son went through this too. we went to the Chiropractor when he was a lil over 2 yrs old and he was mad cuz he didn't want his back adjusted so he started head butting the wall.. The Chiro had enough nerve to ask me if we had him tested for austism

Nicole - posted on 01/02/2010

My son did this...but he eventually just stopped unfortunately there was nothing that I could do to get him to stop. Just everytime he does it tell him NO...I think it might have helped that I pretend cried and my husband told him OH NO you hurt mommy...which of course he did not want to do...but he did eventually stop...after a lot of bumps! I was on the floor and he came up behind me...I did not even see it coming the WHAM right in the back of my head!!! OUCH! Good Luck

Amanda - posted on 01/02/2010

my little boy is 17 months and he headbutts any and everything when he gets mad and I mean everything the floor the walls furniture and people...its part of his tantrum stuff and for a while it was aweful....I asked the doctor when he started it because he wasnt biting or hitting at that point and he told me that even at 9 months they can understand timeouts, so I tried it...if I took one toy away he just found another and if I put him on a "naughty couch" he just got down n he is 33 pounds and 32inches tall I was 8 months prego...so fighting with him was not an option. We ended up trying putting him in his play pen in his room with no toys and it worked wornders. Just try and remember that he is still a baby, so e thinks that the whole world revolves around him and that means that when something happens that makes him feel out of the loop he will most probably get upset, so if he talks try and get him to tell you why he is doing that, and make him understand that he has to play nice with everything and he needs to have respect for things that

Donnah - posted on 01/02/2010

hey my son is 15 month old and same problem i dont know