14 month old head banging when cross

[tryingtobemarypoppins2]

he even moves off the carpet and onto a hard surface to do it! When we pick him up to stop him he hits us!
Outside of these cross moments he is a lovely, happy chap!

Any thoughts?

What happens if you ignore him, walk past him, do the washing up, read a book etc? Should stop it faster than giving him attention by picking him up.

He just bashes! He always has a bruise on his forehead. He will stop once it really hurts..... :(

My DS1 used to do this when he was around 18 months, I tried restraining him but he just head butted me, tried ignoring but it continued... in the end there wasn't anything I could do that would stop him but distraction seemed to stop him after 1 or 2 bumps... he did grow out of it, the ''phase'' lasted around 3-4 months. HV thought it was down to his lack of speech (late talker).
He is 13 years now and a GAMA (Gifted And More Able) student so if it helps, it didn't harm him :o)

HTH x

friend of ds used to do this as a toddler - now at college with ds taking a levels.we always remind him of his head banging days.

Thanks ladies!!! He better had do well, the stress is killing me!!

Hi, I would move him onto something soft like beanbag, and if that doesn't work sit him on floor between your legs, his back to your front, holding him gently (so restraining but in a nice cuddly way!) and then when he has calmed down let him carry on playing. Its really distressing but it is a phase that will pass :)

Hi
My DS was exactly the same, in fact i also posted on it a few months ago because i wanted to know what to do. DS, like yours, would actively go and find a really hard object specifically to headbutt when annoyed. I asked friends whether their DSs did the same and they looked at me like i was the worst mum evaaaar.
But guess what - They grow out of it really quite quickly - YEY!. My DS is now 19 months and has totally stopped doing it. I know 3 - 4 months may sound like a long time to wait but you will be surprised how quick it passes.
My suggestion, which some may not approve of, is leave him to it. The sooner he realises that the only person it hurts is himself the sooner he'll stop. If you rush up and make a huge fuss its more likely to feed into the drama. Obviously if he cries when he does hurt himself you should step in and give him a cuddle. But if you think about it, when you are really frustrated, the last thing you want is someone trying to control your behaviour.
Fingers crossed that it passes as quickly as it did with my DS.

ive got twins and my daughter done this for a while it used 2 scare me she
even went through a stage of throwing herself backwards..It is a attention thing and you have to ignore them its heart breaking butif you keep going over to them they get it into their heads that if they do it you will come a running...Good luck it does wrk

Just wondered if he is talking or walking yet?

My DS used to do the same thing from about 12 - 16 months, it would be against his cot sides and backwards in car seat, highchair and pushchair. Very worrying for us and HV referred him to a specialist who could find absolutely nothing wrong with him but thought it was simply frustration.

A week later he started walking and it completely stopped. I think he just wanted to walk like his big sister and this was how he dealt with the frustration of not being able to.

He was also a very late talker (around 2 1/2 before he could say more than a few words) so this could have frustrated him too. He is now a confident little boy with a good vocabulary and his pre-school have said he is doing exceptionally well for his age.

My advice would be to mention it to your HV but also not to worry as he will more than likely grow out of it.

DS1 also did this briefly, but worked out pretty quickly that it was self-defeating and simply gave him a sore head. It was always part of a tantrum, and you could see him looking up at us to see if we'd come running. If we ignored and walked away he'd sometimes follow us, get down on the floor and do it again. The behaviour passed pretty quickly, thank goodness.

DS did this for years , we always made a point of ignoring him and found that it got noticeably worse when he received any attention for it at all.

He gradually did it less and less frequently and finally stopped.