2.5 YEAR OLD HITS HIM SELF

[MURU]

Hi any advice on this, or anyone had anything similar?

My son whose 2.5yr old in the last month or so has started to hit himself on his hand initially and now his face when he is upset or angry/throwing a tantrum.... He also bangs his head on the floor (which his sister copies now she 13 months) He isnt speaking yet which I know is a contributing Factor.

Any advice??

No advice sorry. But will be watching, my 18month old ds has started banging his head on the floor too. Hard enough to hurt but not excessively if that makes sense. I apparently did it as a toddler too and no side effects that i know of

My 23mo DS hits himself and bangs his head on things too.
He has been doing it since about 16mo and it has definitely got better as he can communicate more.

It's apparently quite common and my HV said it can be a sign of intelligence (as if whacking your head, hurting yourself and making your mummy cry are clever things to do! )

In our case it is to do with frustration and not being able to communicate exactly what he wants to do. I have had to really watch him and study the cues he gives when an incident is likely. Where possible I have taken him to somewhere soft and let him get on with it. But distraction can really help "oh look at that spider over there" and also empathy eg "DS Mummy doesn't understand what you want to do but I know you feel cross about it".
Try not to worry too much about it even though the sound of them cracking their head on something is awful. This too shall pass..