Head banging toddler - is this normal?

[KittyTN]

My 18 month old started head butting his cot- fast and repeatedly when he was about 12 months. we had to transfer him into his travel cot as he often bruised himself and I have to admit I found the noise quite distressing. He has since changed his behaviour to leaning up against the travel cot mesh and repeatedly throwing himself back onto it. It's like an extreme form of rocking. weird.

Has anyone else experienced this or similar? What happened? Any advice or opinions?

Not quite head banging but DS1 rocks himself to sleep and used to do it quite violently - he grazed his head quite badly against the travel cot mesh when we went on holiday when he was around 12mo. He is nearly 4yo and still does it to get himself off to sleep but not quite as badly. My brothers used to do this too (and probably still do for all I know)

I used to do it until I was in my teens (although it was more of a rocking when I got older). My parents took me to the docs and were told it was fine, no problem and I'd grow out of it. I'm fine and I did grow out of it.

Thanks, guys. That sounds quite reassuring. Ds starts bouncing as soon as we put him down, he tends to wake early and I can hear him bouncing away before I get him up. I wondered if he was bored in the early mornings but short of starting the day at 6am not sure what else to do. Hopefully he'll just grow out of it too. Cotbed was a waste of money - it has been dismantled in spare room for months now!!

I know you aren't supposed to but we kept the cot bumper things on the cotbed bars to pad them out a bit - we didn't actually use them when he was a baby but they certainly saved his head from bruises as he got bigger