DD 16 months - bangs head on floor

[KiwiJean]

Hello,

My daughter seems to be captured by moments of insanity, where she will rough herself up, to seemingly prove a point?

Around 1yr, she started to bang herself on the head if she wasn't getting enough attention (e.g. I was having a coffee!). This was ignored, and seemed to die out. Which is when she started making herself vomit! Again, this was ignored as best I could, and it's petered out a lot too.

The new thing seems to be getting down on all fours and smacking her head against the ground! This, I'm finding harding to ignore as she really nuts herself! Also the cause seems different with the headbanging. Rather than trying to gain my attention, it seems she is getting frustrated (e.g. today she slipped on the floor and knocked her head accidently, she was quite upset by it, and once she was comforted and put back down on the floor, started banging her head!).

Is this another thing to be ignored and hope that it'll go away before she looses too many braincells?

Thanks
Jean

Hi Fellow Jean My ds does this too though less and less - he is 18m. There are few threads on headbanging here and also the childcare books cover it. Basically if she's hitting herself she's very unlikely to be doing any harm as she will 'pull her punches' if you see what I mean. My DS seems to head bang very violently when thwarted but he never gets a bruise or a bump from it so I think it is just for show, just a phase and ignoring / explaining not to do that is the best course of action.

what does the Dr say?????