11 MO keeps intentionally banging his head

[theanimalswentintwobytwo]

I have a 11 MO DS. He has recently started hitting his head aginst walls, cuboards, cot rails etc.

Why is he doing this? What can I do to stop him? Is there anything wrong with him?

HELP!!!

My DS has done this a couple of times but I can get him to stop by just telling him not to quite firmly. I was discussing this with a group of friends and one of them said that it is apparantly a soothing thing. No idea why though.

Sometimes it can be due to wanting more stimulation of the vestibular system (balance etc) apparently, although I can't remember where I read it.

Babies who are rocked a lot (e.g. carried in slings, rocked to sleep) apparently are less likely to do it.

Maybe try to find time for bouncing him on your lap games or similar and see if that helps?

DS did do this a bit at night when he started crawling, though, although not in the daytime (and he got loads of rocking). It was to do with wanting to move around the cot but not quite being capable.

My DS goes through phases of this. Started at about 10 months. He often laughs whilst doing it!

As harsh as it sounds, I walk away. DS must want an audience, because he stops straight away & follows me out of the room

DD1 did as an attention seeker. We used to get very upset, but when she started crawling I noticed that she would go to carpet and then do it! Ignore it and it will stop, but if you can't bear to watch him do it against a hard surface put him on a large cushion/bean bag and then walk away.

She now hasn't done it for about two years, but she has found plenty of other ways to get attention (she is 3.3 now)

thanks everyone.

He does get rocked and bounced quite a lot, but he is starting to try and walk so I guess it could be to do with his balance.

I'll have a look and see if he does it when he's getting bored, or not getting enough attention.

I'll let you know if i can see any kind of pattern.

It's just really weird

Sounds like the rocking thing is unlikely to be it.

They do experiment with doing different things just because they've discovered they can though.