10 mth old banging head in cot

[PorridgeBrain]

DD is 10 months and now she is on the move, we are having a nightmare settling her to sleep. My main concern however, is that in protest of being put in her cot she is banging her head quite hard and repeatedly on the wooden ends of her cot and am worried that she is hurting herself. I'm not sure how I can continue to encourage her to self settle if I have to keep going in every time she is banging her head and am reluctant to undo all our hard work by rocking or feeding her to sleep. I know I can't even use cot bumpers or anything to pad the end of the cot. Any one else experienced this and have any suggestions??

[bubblagirl]

i had cot bumpers all around my ds cot he was completely bumpered up

put a favourite toy in cot so can amuse herself until falling asleep ds had his little musical toy and would happily play witht hat and doze off

other than that im not sure sorry hope someone else can help

[woose]

My DS has done this right from when he was really little. I have read that it is quite common and it is their way of trying to get to sleep. Although it sounds really scary!! I think that sometimes the noise sounds worse through the baby monitor than it really is. My DS has never hurt himself from doing this, and we have not put bumpers around the cot. He is 22 months now and he still does it. I think I just tried to put DS to sleep in the middle of the cot in a sleeping bag. Sometimes he does wriggle up and hit the ends though. Also DS has started bashing his legs on the mattress, I think that they will grow out of it, although I don't know when. Sorry, I don't really know what else to suggest, maybe someone else has tried something that helped.

[PorridgeBrain]

Thanks for the advice. Have been desperately trying to find a favourite toy but she is not interested in playing with anything in her cot even toys she loves to play with during the day. Nice to hear its not just me that's experienced this though

[Drummer]

I suggest caring for your DD in this scenario. If similar behaviour was seen in a mental health ward, carers would be there to help the patient through the time and stop them damaging themselves. The behaviour itself, if seen in any other animal, would be seen as a mental health issue. Why would it be any different in a baby?

She'll self-settle if she's secure in the knowledge that her parents are there for her. Of course, that's not always convenient, but neither is having kids in the first place.

[notthebubblyseaweed]

My ds1 head banged although also had nose bleeds. Eventually a friend suggested trying an osteopath who specialised in cranio-sacral therapy in infants. Immediate result.

She explained that sometimes seemingly behavioural problems have a physical root. In his case glue ear. I have recommended this to many friends and so far only positive outcomes! Took subsequent dc's for treatment at 6 week stage as there is some evidence that delivery can cause long lasting physical trauma which can lead to things such as glue ear etc. There are websites though can't recall names now. Our osteopath was amazing. Was in Glasgow (Battlefield area) now St Andrew's I believe.

Wish you all the best whatever the outcome!