16 month old deliberately hurting herself

[tocmrpouce]

My 16 month old DD has recently developed a habit of banging her head hard on the floor / wall / bed when she doesn’t get her own way. I don’t really know what to do about it. I try ignoring her but I invariably end up grabbing her to stop her doing any further damage and saying ‘NO, we don’t bang heads’ but that usually results in even more tears.

It’s awful seeing her deliberately hurt herself. Anyone have any advice?

[Pantspants]

No advice but sympathy. Dc1 is also 16 months and has been doing this for the last 2 or 3 months. I think a lot of it is frustration as mine isn't talking yet.
Here it is usually accompanied by an epic temper tantrum and we have started putting them on the floor on a big duvet and lots of cushions to limit the damage they can do and I leave him to it. It ends a lot quicker if he isn't getting any attention.
There are probably better ways to deal with it and so I'll watch this thread with interest!

[tocmrpouce]

Thanks for your reply pants. Have also tried lying her on a rug to try to minimize her hurting herself.
Sorry to hear that your dc is the same. It's hard, especially as I worry it'll only get worse.

[lazyfrog]

It's horrible isn't it. My son started this at around 14 months

Saying no didn't work for us. But stopping him hurting himself if near corners etc and ignoring seemed to do the trick. Didn't verbally acknowledge what he was doing and tried to distract as soon as he was calm enough.. It happened less frequently and now at 17 months it occurs very rarely.

In hindsight it is clear he wasn't hurting himself just being extremely dramatic!

[NorahBone]

Same here! The head banging only seemed to last a couple of months, from about 17-18m, although he did it occasionally when he was about 13m as well, so I'm aware he might pull it out of the arsenal again when he's older. The first time round I ignored it because I didn't want to inadvertently encourage it, but when he went through a stage of doing it repeatedly I picked him up and, like pps, put him somewhere soft. I took the view that he still wasn't getting his own way but it's probably ok to help him calm down. I'll reason with him when he can talk

[tocmrpouce]

Thanks for further replies. Will try putting her somewhere soft and not acknowledging the banging. Think that's probably making things worse. Am looking forward to a reasonable discussion too norah!