My 14 month old keeps banging his head, on everything. On purpose!

[Tulipsia]

I have no idea what to do. I know it's tantrums and part of their development... I rang and spoke to my health visitor about it as his forehead is literally covered in bruises and she said not to do anything, that this is his way if pushing his boundaries and testing my patience . I haven't been just letting him do it tho.

He was supposed to go for his booster jabs today but I cancelled the appointment as if they saw him I'm scared they'd think it's me doing it and call SS (I know it's drastic but his poor little head looks terrible).

I'm at my wits end. His tantrums have become much much worse over the summer holidays as I've had to split my attention 3 ways for his brother and sister instead of just on him.

Please help!! I want to wrap him up in cotton wool!!

A chum of mine had a little boy who did this too and she was given the same advice - and also found it very hard to ignore.

Get the jabs done and if you need more advice/support try your DP or HV again.

my 16 month DS is going through a stage of doing this aswell,if i tell him no for any reason he head butts the nearest thing

ive also been advised to just ignore it

hi, my son did used to do this, it started when he was about 14 months, and I hated it just like you. his head was covered in bruises and I was so embaressed when he did it in front of people, they looked at him like he was crazy.
Even though it was really, really hard ignoring him did work. When he does it just look the other way, he is waiting for a reaction from you. When he calms down give him a big, big cuddle.
My son is nearly 2 now and i've just realised after reading your post that he hasn't done it for ages. obviously he still has almighty tantrums but the headbanging has stopped. Now that he can talk a bit, he has a better (less painful!!) way of communicating, he just screams NOOOOOO!!!

Ha I asked for advice on the same thin at about the same time. Ds would bang his head on the floor in a strop or sometimes the wall. He was coveredd in bruises as well. I was told to ignore him and it works. He still strops but he doesn't try to damage himself anymore. I know it's hard but if he's aiming at a surface that's not too hard let him do it and look away cos he's after attention. Obviously if he's going to really hurt himself move him somewhere safer and then ignore him

My Daughter used to do this. I used to put her on a bean bag, and then ignore her. She stopped in the end and found other ways of attention seeking