Walwal

My son was 2 in April.

He's been banging his head off the floor or me or our lass or whatever is at hand when things don't go his way for a month or so now. Happens a lot more when he's tired. He does it, it obviously hurts, then he starts to cry cos he's in pain.

It's got to the stage where he's getting bruises in the middle of his forehead, which look terrible.

Anyone else had similar experiences, and if so, how did you stop it?? I'm worried he's going to do himself some serious harm, or possible long term damage cos he really gives it the whole 9 yards.

Thanks,

Andy.

boxst

Hello

Thankfully this didn't happen to my daughters, but there is an article here: http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/tod...ior/11554.html : which is quite comforting as it says it is common.

Steve.

Walwal

Thanks Boxst. That's sort of put my mind at rest.

Don't know if I can just ignore it when he's trying to knock 7 shades of **** out of the arm of the settee mind you. Lol.

Andy.

Turbohot

Andy, have you taken him to doctors with this? If not, you must do so.I am not worrying you at all but it could be as simple as his Psynuses a bit inflamed or some kind of irritation in/on his forehead which makes him do so.Yes, he can harm himself.He is a little soul who cant express exactly what he is feeling.The best thing is to go to doctors and insist on proper diagnosis even if it means asking for further specialists advice.It may come out to be some kind of "sensory" condition or, its just a play for him.
All the best !

Turbohot

Boxt indeed has posted a good link.That should relieve you a bit.

Walwal

Turbohot, he used to do it when he was about 18 months, but then he seemed to stop. Then it started again around his second birthday. We had his 2 year check around then (duh, lol) with the health visitor, and she said to ignore it, and that a lot of kids did it. Not long after, he stopped doing it.

But now it's started again in the last few weeks. Seems more intense this time, and definitely more frequent than the other times. Our lass is going to book another appointment with the health visitor when she's off work in a couple of weeks, but I just wondered if anyone else had had similar problems.

I think it must be down to the temper thing, because like I say, he does it when he doesn't get his own way (little sod!!!), and also, I've got quite a quick temper which I think he's inherited off me.

The article was a good read, and I appreciate it a lot Boxst. Much obliged to you.

We'll see what the health visitor has to say when he goes, but I think it'll be the same as the article, ignore it. Not easy when you can see he's really hurting himslef. It's also hard not to punish him for doing it, when you can see he's doing wrong.

Thanks for the replies.

Andy.

jerryh

He's probably just throwing temper tantrums. Our youngest used to do that when she didn't get her own way. Wife would be covered in bruises from the kicking, punching etc. It lasted only a little while. Don't get yourself too stressed about it as he's probably picking up on it. Honestly the best thing to do is IGNORE. It is hard to do, but the more you let on about it and the more he sees you stressing about it the more he will do it.

PIXIEDUST

my boy did this as he was prone to ear infections ,he's 6 now and he had a nasty ear infection a few months ago and he still bumped and even punched himself in the head .very distressing to see .

scoobyangel

my 18 month old has often taken to bashing his head against the wall whilst having a temper tantrum, i chose the ignore route, and walked away from him paying him no attention whatsoever until he had become calm again... only took a couple of times for him to realise that this behaviour did him more harm than good and did not give him any attention!!

it is really really comon for little boys to bash their heads, and apparently little girls are more prone to breath holding to get the same attention, tho i dont know how true this is!!!

mart360

Mines coming up for two

now discoverd that he can bite himself...

the mrs was quite worried... me not!!!

my answer, as soon as he draws blood, or it hurts he,ll stop

and again its quite normal..


(what the hell were we like then)


Mart

CrisPDuk

This is a good point to check out, my niece, now three, was doing it as a result of an ear infection and it took a lot of persistence on my sister's part to get the doctors to examine her properly. They all said "it's a phase, she'll grow out of it". I have to say having seen her do it, the damage she appeared to be attempting to do was pretty terrifying

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

One thing you do need to do is inform your GP, and get his condition/problem logged on record.

The problem is these days social service/child protection etc take no prisioners, and it's a case of guilty until proven innocent in many circumstances. I don't want to scare you, but it would be prudent as it only takes one phone call from someone who admittedly can have good intentions to cause all sorts of problems for you.

scooby-si

my son is just 2 but he doesnt do it but our friends have twin boys only 3 days younger than my son and 1 of them does it m8,i now my lad gets mad because he cannt tell us anything and gets worked up might be something like that,

good luck with him m8

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

might be worth seeing is he is hyperactive. simple food colourings in his favourite drink could be setting him off, I know it did for me, it was inexplicable at the time.

hope that helps.

james

Walwal

Thanks for all the replies about this.

I think I'll get our lass to take him to the doc. Like you say Ali, get it registered before some do-gooder calls the wrong poeple!!!

Cheers,

Andy.

Tiggs

my 3 year old used to wack himself on the head when he had a strop........now hes getting a big lump he has started hitting us instead......i wish he'd go back to how he was!

Elliot

My little boy who was 2 in April did the same thing but he has done it since he was really little, he has started to calm down a bit recently when I just started to ignore it and pay him no attention when he was crying after he did it (this is really hard), he has also started to talk really well now and this has mad a hugh difference to his whole personalitly. He still bangs his head up and down on his mattress when he dosn't want to go to sleep but it leaves no marks and dosn't really hurt him. I went to the doctors about it last year, he checked him over and said there was no problems and that he's probably just frustrated. Its really hard to see them hurting themselves but hopfully he will grow out of it.

Angie (Elliot's Other 1/2)

Chip

WalWal,
Does he get attention from you/wife when he does this. If so may be attention seeking. Try ignoring it for a while, hard to do maybe, but try it.

Chip.

ScoobywagonGl

my lil man is 22 months and has been doing this since he was about 18 months old! he does it simply to get your attention! now i send him to his room til he calms down or just put him in the middle of the room and i leave him there on his own until he calms down!
its just another stage of terrible twos ... tantrum 3's

Walwal

Catrina took him to the docs today, doc said same as most on here, temper/attention thing, and ignore him. Not going to be easy. Also said if it looks like he's going to do it, quickly try to distract him, in the hope he'll not do it.

Chip, we've tried to stop him in the past, but it looks like we'll just have to let him bang away (ooer missus!!!, lol).

Thanks,

Andy

wakeboardar

our 18 month old boy does it too
he only does it on the carpet he knows tiles and concrete hurt to much
the blue bruising on his head looks like we beat him up, but ive seen many kids with this

D.K.1

My little lad has done this since about the age of 1 and a bit, he's alway's covered in bruises, he used to throw his arms and legs about in temper too, which used to get bruised a lot, but he just generally bangs his head now.

It hurts if he headbuts people, it's always on legs, between legs or in your chest (sensitive areas)

If he doesn'thit his head on purpose, in temper, he runs around like a looney and always gets bruises iff the edges of open doors or handles My health visitor said it's quite common and nothing to worry about and thet he would grow out of it. He's a mad thing at times !

He has a habit of slamming things and throwing hard things in his tempers now too It is easing off a bit, he's two and a half now, it's not happening half as much and doesn't last as long as it used to, it should stop all together soon

He's not a bad little lad, but his tempers can be, if he doesn't get what he wants, when he wants it