14 month old hitting herself on the face/head

[WSM]

My DD has recently (in the last couple of weeks) started hitting herself in the face or on the head. She uses anything from her hands, to the remote control or one of her hard toys (usually a stick used to play a toy instrument). She hits quite hard and there is an audible 'clunk'. She always looks a bit confused afterwards, as if to say 'What was that for ?', but she never gets upset by it. She is quite verbal and we generally know what she is 'asking' for. There seems to be no pattern, she doesn't do it when hungry or tired for instance. We spent Sunday over at a frends house and DD just started hitting herself at the dinner table (6 other couples, excluding DH & I). Everyone else seemed to think it was funny but I'm really starting to worry. Please tell me it's a phase that they grow out of ?

By 'she is very verbal...' I mean that I don't think it is a frustration at lack of communication skills thing, IYSWIM

PLEASE HELP !!!!

Yep - mine does that too.

When I've mentiond it to friends quite a few of them have had similar experiences so I'm not worrying about it.

When I made a point of telling her not to she did it more and started laughing so now, I hold her arms by her sides and say no... so far this seems to be working (as in she doesn't do it multiple times - IYKWIM)

Thinking about it, my child does loads of stuff like this but on the whole she's very placid - strange!

Yes, my DD has never been a fractious child and hardly ever cries for no reason. It just strikes me as totally out of character for my normally sunny, sociable little girl.

snap. my dd never cries, not really. Is your dd walking?

Not on her own,. She walks confidently if you hold her hand but can't seem to master the balance needed to take steps on her own yet.

I posted on another thread a few days ago saying that my dd had started having the most awful tantrums for no reason but they seem to have cleared up alot since she started walking unaided.

TBH I think these sort of things are just frustrations about something-or-another.

Sorry I have no firm answers but I hope your not too worried about it.

The latest for my dd is spinning in a circle until shes dizzy and then falling over! she's nearing 16 months now.

Since nothing else seems to be amiss, I would say there's probably no cause for concern. My dd is 14 months and also has gone through phases of hitting herself on the head - usually with the palm of her hand. She's also hit herself in the face with various objects - I think they just are not very co-ordinated, but also are trying out what happens if they do stuff. They learn pretty fast that whacking themselves in the face with the TV remote control is not a good plan! But in the meantime no doubt it seems as good an idea to them as anything else.

Thanks

Oh WSM - one more thing... once mine had got bored with hands and various other objects she started banging her head on the wall ...and also pulling her hair... these seem to be becoming less frequent now she can say basic words and walk though

Oh great, so it gets worse DD would have a job to pull hair as she is still pretty bald ! Small mercies , eh ?!

maybe mines just a mini-psycho

I don't think they'd ever hurt themselves on purpose (well don't think they'd do it twice anyway).

I really did find that holding her hands away from her head when I said "no" worked a lot.

Whenever I try the moving her hands away and saying 'no' firmly approach, she always looks away and wriggles onto her back. SAhe knows she is being told off, so to speak, and she tries to get away from me. Yet, she does it again minutes later.

Sounds like we have the same dd!! does she throw herself backwards too - as if to bang the back of her head on the floor? the other thing mine tried was going all limp so it was hard to stop her quick enough.

That's it ! The throwing the head back/arching the back thing is a nightmare. She's a red head so I suppose I should've seen it coming !

I am a red head

Has she tried it in the bath yet?? oh now theres a treat try holding a wet soapy baby while she's doing that!

My 13.5 mo dd is a redhead and is similarly tantrummy.

Am yet to be treated to the bath tantrum. I look forward to it !

It should have been on Krypton Factor.

You're supposed to be reassuring me !!!

Ooops sorry! you have to laugh though.

They grow out of it... sooner or later. She started the bath thing when I refused to let her stand up and walk around in the bath. can't win

DS did this at about 15months. we thought there was something wrong with him. Whenever I would tell him off for something, not severly he would start punching himself in the face. Needless to say he is 3.8months now and grew out of it after a few months.