help! 1 year old head butting the floor!

[marne]

Hi,
My dd has started to bang her head on the floor, is this normal? she seems to think its funny but i am worried she might hurt her self. How do i stop her from doing this? please help

Saw a Baby Whisperer programme along these lines a while back although I think the child may have been a bit older. Advice was to offer something like a bean bag as a safe place to do it - when she starts lift her calmy onto it and wait until she finishes before offering any attention. They also had their child butting in the cot so had to pad all the rails.

Ds ( 9 months) hits himself round the head - hard - with stuff. And if we tap his head (lightly of course!) with a soft toy repeatedly he goes wild laughing. Just thought it was normal...

My DS (now 2) has been perfecting the art of headbanging for some time now. Don't worry - she's not abnormal and the more attention you pay - the more she'll oblige. Best thing is to leave the room and remove the audience. We get much less of it these days - only occasionally if he's in a real tantrum.

Should also add that she is unlikely to headbang hard enough to really hurt herself - although it makes a good sound.

Thanks,
Pleased to hear shes not the only one that does it.

Ooh I remember those days...it's really distressing isn't it?
My ds went through two phases of bashing his head on the floor at the same age. It seems to be very common. The toddler taming book recommends that you ignore it and we did and it worked. It was just frustration and attention seeking, I think. If you look closely, you'll notice that she probably isn't hitting her head very hard, just enough to get a reaction from you!

Hi, i remember that so well, i used to join in and then with in a few days he stopped, looked at me as thought i was the crazy one,,,,, well it worked for me...