Toddler hitting herself in the face- advice?

[Redreindeertoy]

She’s my first and only child so I have no idea if this is ‘normal’ toddler behaviour or not.

She’s almost 2 and over the last week or so, when she’s having a tantrum/ is upset about something, she’ll smack herself in the face repeatedly.

The first time she did it, I said a very firm NO and took her hand and repeated gentle hands, we don’t hit ourselves etc. I then noticed she did it more and was looking to me for a reaction, so I stopped giving her one and ignored her/ it completely hoping it would stop.

This morning she’s been throwing tantrums and doing it loads, it’s so awful to ignore but she looks at me when she’s doing it and I think she wants a reaction from me.

AIBU to ask if this is this ‘normal’ toddler behaviour and how to handle it?

It’s so upsetting to see.

My son did that when he was turning 2 too. It didn’t last long. The tantrums are still very dramatic - he’s now almost 3 - but he no longer hits himself.

I’m afraid I’m quite useless as I can’t remember how he stopped, but it was all coming from frustration of not being able to communicate what he needed.

It’s difficult to balance making sure they’re not actually causing an injury with letting them deal with the feelings as loudly as they need to. IMO it’s pretty normal and I wouldn’t make too big a fuss of it, hard as it is.

She's looking at you for attention so give it, not when she's hitting herself continue to ignore that but catch her doing things calmly. "Wow, that was a very tricky XYZ, I like how you figured out how to do it" also model how to deal with tricky or annoying things by talking out loud through the process, she'll take it in and as she gets older will start to use those skills "ugh, I'm finding XYZ very tricky today Im starting to feel annoyed Im going to have 5 deep breaths and try again"

I think it’s fairly normal toddler tantrum behaviour and it will stop as soon as it started. Try using distraction maybe. I used to find that helpful. One of my kids did it too, face slapping, scratching, banging his head on the door. I apparently did it too but would get down on my knees and bang my forehead on the floor. I’m fine now honest! 😁
Ds is 11 now and also fine.