Headbanging 2 year old! Any more out there?!

[Bex22]

Our lovely munchkin (!) is 22 months and we have a 3 month baby. Headbanging is a lot better at the moment but we have gone through an awful stage where he deliberately bangs his head (the forehead where he bruises really obviously of course) for attention or if he is having a paddy- really hard too, the side of the bath for instance and the floor. Awfully upsetting at the time. Just wondered if this is a boy thing and whether anyone else had experienced it. He really hurts himself too when he does it- tears to eyes etc. Some people have said to ignore it- difficult but has had some success and then one person suggested a supernanny technique of giving him a cushion to headbutt so he gets used to picking up something soft to let out frustration on. He is an awful lot better now and hasn't done it for a couple of weeks, but just interested to know if anyone else has had same problem as haven't posted or looked at the site for a while

oh yes!! DS (nearly 3) was a serial headbanger and it used to make me cry as I hated seeing him hurt himself. He still does it now and then but thankfully, he seems to have largley grown out of it.

We were going to re-assemble the travel cot as it was soft mesh sides and just pop him in there every time he did it so that he could headbang, be ignored and not hurt himself but then I found by standing there and saying 'oooh go on then, carry on headbanging' he would stop - kind of a reverse pyschology thing...

I also found picking up a magazine, pretending I didn't care and hiding behind it stopped him - its sooo hard as your first instinct is to run and stop them from doing it, but if you watch them - they are usually looking out the corner of their eye to see if you are paying attention - bottom line, they want a reaction - positive or negative!

Thanks Puss, just read this to my husband and it's exactly how I feel and what DS does- especially looking out of corner of eyes. I will attempt the reverse psychology next time he does it. Nice knowing that we're not the only ones- we have been feeling very helpless and emotional about it.

my son also did for a while upto about 2 1/2 he used to really hurt himself massive bumps and bruises. we encouraged him to do it on a cushion. He then used to get a cusion and do it himself. Doing it this way also meant that i was not so worried cos he was not hurting himself so i stopped giving him attention and eventually it broke the pattern of him doing it. even now though he will just do it out of fustration every now and then but is realsiseing how much it hurts fingers crossed it has been a few months since he last did it.

We have a headbanger. I ignore him (which is easier said than done). I feign indifference and often pretend to read a book as well - then I don't have to watch him. It is worse in public. I have to tell other people "just ignore him he is throwing a paddy". This is made worse by the fact he throws that he can talk and says "IT really really hurts".

The ignoring seems to help. He hasn't done it for a while. Also I did wonder whether it was something to do with teeth coming through.

The cushion idea doesn't really make much difference as I can't always predict when it will happen. Anyway I am sure my ds thinks the cushion lacks the effect that the floor gives.

That's interesting about teeth coming through because he has had a lot of back molars coming through at same time headbanging was at worse (and also new sibling) which obv doesn't help!