Hi.
I may be over thinking here or over worrying but my 17 month old is banging her head constantly in temper, in comfort and pretty much any time she feels like it. She does it quite hard and leaves bruises on her head. This is my first child and I'm a lone parent so not sure if this is normal? Anyway it's put me on high alert and after googling, which I know I shouldn't do, I've seen some links to autism. So I've been monitoring her and her development closely.
She's gone off all food pretty much. She won't eat veg, which she loved and won't give certain fruits a chance, she just pushes the fork away and screams for example kiwi being one. She today has recently refused chicken and potatoes and threw them everywhere. She only ate the beans. She's going off of everything and I'm finding she will only really eat a full meal if it's a baby ready meal. She eats sandwiches and baby crisps/rice cakes, ice cream and yoghurts and I've noticed she rarely, if ever, refuses these. But her diet is limited to beans, bread and ready meals, chips with the odd spag Bol and things like that where I can hide veg. I'm finding it difficult that everything in cooking she's just pulling a face and spitting it out.
She only started walking at 16 months old. She makes gestures like pointing and communicating with eye contact and smiles and dancing. She's also learnt to wash her hands through watching a peppa pig advert 😂 but she absolutely refuses cuddles. She will cuddle her toys but push me away and scream if I go in for a cuddle. I do get the odd cuddle but not daily. She's never been one to want to be nursed to sleep. She doesn't really use a dummy. At bed time she just throws it out of her cot and likes to throw things. She is obsessed with the tumble dryer and will gaze at it for ages. She responds to her name and if I point to something she looks at the object not my hand. She makes baby sounds and I can tell she is trying to copy what I am saying but no actual words and she copies facial expressions.
Maybe I'm just over worrying but I had a traumatic pregnancy with severe hospitilisatoon and was in ICU hooked up to a defibrillator to restart my heart so I'm worried it's had some effect and the head banging has made me overly worry.
She also doesn't like to be restrained. If she's in her high chair the minute she finishes food she will scream to get out. She doesn't sit and relax with me and cuddle. She's constantly on the go! Like she won't sit at a table and chair or sit on any of her ride on toys, I cannot get her in a swing and if I stop in the pram she will have a tantrum.
When she has her milk she takes a few gulps, sits up, slams the milk down and then picks it back up and drinks it and repeats this the whole feed, then when she's finished puts the lid on, takes it off, puts it on, takes it off...
I take her to baby classes but obviously with lockdown we haven't been for months but when we were last there she's very engaged, absolutely loves it, takes notice and interest in other babies and shares toys too.
She knows how to get my attention by making sounds etc but if she can't get my attention the head banging starts. I'm not sure if this is all part of normal development and she's just behind in some things or whether to keep an eye out further.
Can anyone shed any light? Thanks x