15 month old keeps hitting himself in face?!

[Monkeybrain10]

My 15 month old is lively, funny and super cute, but (like most toddlers I assume) can have massive tantrums and pushes boundaries.

Recently in the last few weeks he has taken to slapping himself in the face - why?? Does anyone have any theories or experience of this weird behaviour?

He does it, looks shocked because it must hurt a bit, then laughs and does it more . I try very hard not to freak out or laugh (depending on how hard he's doing it) as I figure both things might encourage it, but it is hard to ignore so I have been trying to calmly stop him and distract him.

He also is in the habit of throwing things when he gets stroppy. Again - any suggestions of how to deal this would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Monkeybrain10]

Thank you! We were starting to worry that our little cheery chap is turning into a horror - ha ha :-D It's good to know he's not the only child to experiment with slapping himself!?? Oh please let him grow out of this one quickly!

[fiorentina]

Our DS did this for a while. We ignored it generally and he stopped as the 'novelty' wore off. It does seem strange but we put it down to experimenting.

[bebo100]

I think he's probably just experimenting. If my boy accidentally banged his head, he used to then deliberately do it again. I think the was just learning how hard was hard. A friend's little girl also did something similar.
About the throwing - if its deliberately thrown at another person / child i'd adopt a zero tolerance policy and confiscate the toy for a while. If it's not at a person I'd give one warning before confiscating. Seemed to work with my toddler - he rarely throws stuff now.