Why is my son headbutting me?

[llareggub]

DS is 18 months. In the last few weeks he has starting headbutting me and other things, so badly he has a bruise in the centre of his forehead. He doesn't seem bothered by it.

He has also started hitting out at me, and sometimes he actually hurts.

A firm "no" gets a chuckle or a grin from him. If I say "ow" he laughs. I think he is too young for the naughty step.

Why is he doing it and what can I do?

Thanks o wise ones.

Oh I will watch this thread closely DS2 is a little older but does the same, it drives me mad!

Sound more firm. At 18months he is plenty old enough to understand no and know that you mean it.

Get down to his level, make eye contact with him; he will still think that if he cant see you (by looking away) you cant see him.

Go on, you can do it

My 16 month old is just starting to hit out at me - he's received a firm no the few times it's happened but I'd be interested in MNer wisdom on this one.....

I will try being firmer I guess. TBH I sound so firm I scare myself!

DS currently in melt down over bedtime...am in the middle of the taking him back to bed thing. Am on stair climb number 10.

LOL - at them thinking that if they can't see us we can't see them, is that true? Explains a lot - he keeps running and hiding from me (17 months), particularly if I ask what he's doing in that voice!

DS headbutts too, I assumed it was some kind of attention seeking but a bit weird as he only does it when I'm there and when I'm paying him attention .

my ds did that too. His favorite was to sit on your lap all cuddly then throw himself backwards, I had a lovely black eye and he split my lip once as well. He also bit me so hard it drew blood.

I put it down to frustration - there were times you could see he wanted to say/do something. THe other more random stuff was partly when he was tired and sometimes maybe a bit bored. ALso when he was having a growth spurt or teething.

The preschool's solution which we started to follow, was to get down to eye level say 'no' and either talk or distract, if that failed, remove him from the situation or where possible ignore it.

At home, we tried talking to him when he was frustrated 'can you point to what you want/show mummy? etc' and distraction when he seemed bored. Tired/growth spurt he went to bed earlier and teething was solved by anbesol (miracle in a jar).

IF there was no reason we could think of, or he couldn't stop, we put him in time out, which is the naughty step by another name or we'd say it was sad when he hurt mummy and daddy and ignored him for 60 seconds. (I can still remember dh counting to 60 through gritted teeth on one occaision.) It usually was a good way for him to calm down and get a handle on himself.

It did get better it was hard to be consistent, especially when he broke 3 pairs of glasses in a week, but after a few weeks, we noticed a real difference. By the time he ws 20 minths he hardly did it at all and now he rarely does it he's nearly 2.5.

Hope this helps.