DD2 keeps banging her head on the floor

[mieow]

My daughter is nearly 3, was born 7 weeks early, and has Trichotilomania. Recently she has started banging her head on the floor. She wakes up at night and screams then just bangs her head on the floor, I am finding this very distressing and don't know how to deal with my troubled baby.

I am sorry I do not have anything to say that will help

My sister's daughetr went through a phase of banging her head off the floor when she was about 3ys. One afternoon she actually split her forehead when she banged her head on the stone kitchen floor. She used to bang her head when she was having a tantrum. As the tantrums subsided, so did the headbanging. Hope someone can offer advice mieow.

My DD started banging her head against the wall during tantrums when she was about 2.5, she soon realised that it hurt and that she got no reaction from me. I really wanted to give her a kiss and cuddle to make she was ok but knew she had to learn the hard way. It only lasted for a few monhts at the most. I hope your DD does grow out of it quickly.

DS1 went through a phase of banging his head on anything hard he could find. It was awful- he would look around for the hardest object and whack his head on it. He had permanent bruises on his forehead and was doing this about 2 times a day. In his case I worked out it must be a diet reaction. Looked at what had changed in his diet which was easy as he eats so little). Noticed that he had gone from having (ground organic nothing else in it) peanut butter once a week to 3 times a day. Removed the peanut butter and all headbanging stopped within 2 days. It was our most dramatic dietary success!

Maybe worth looking at diet- of children have leaky guts (and premature babies may be candidates) then some foods can have drug like effects - and stop them feeling pain (or make them feel stoned). If she has changed her diet at all since the headbanging started maybe try witholding that food for a week or see and seeing what happens.

What's trichotilomania?

I remember people used to say "don't worry he won't hurt himself" then would look on open mouthed as he actually went out of his way to ensure that he did hurt himself. Before making the diet linkI just used ot out my hand between him and the hard object- used to drive him crazy, but I maybe prevented a few bruises

sorry was doing this about TWENTY times a day- not 2!

trichotillomania is hair pulling

Trichotilomania is hair pulling, she has pulled a large patch yesterday. She just seems so troubled atm and she doesn't seem herself. We are waiting for the results of her Coelacic screen atm, which could mean her diet will need to change a lot if postive

LOL MTS, posted at the same time

Ah- well gluten does have opiate type effects (ds1 went gluten free at 2- never been coeliac tested though) - you may find that if she does go gluten free the headbanging and other self-injurous behaviour stops. If it did it owuld suggest she has a leaky gut. DS1 does still sef injure- but he feels more pain when he's not eating things he shouldn't be so he does it a lot less (and a lot more gently).

BTW the urine test at Sunderland would tell you whether you had a leaky gut type problem. It's done at the autism research unit- but they process plenty of non-autistic samples as well.......

Hi Mieow, My Ds went through a phase of head banging from about 10mths old to about 17mths old. He would do it when having a tantrum, and would actually stop and look for something to bang his head on, which could be floors walls, doors or anything hard really.
He kept on getting bruises so, in the end everytime he did it I picked him uo and put him on the sofa, and he soon stopped.

It is distressing though i know. I hope someone can find a solution for you.

I watched a programme on Sky about a little boy head banging last week. I hope you've got sky, it was on discovery health channel 154. THe baby whisperer, it's often repeated. I think there's a web site on it if you just search baby whisperer. Hope that's some help.

Iaw the same programme as Woodpops.I think the advice given was to put a beanbag under the childs head as soon as they started to bang it.After a few days,the little boy took himself off to his beanbag when he got worked up & banged his head on it instead.

Sorry,can't type more,have octopus like dd on lap.Hope things improve soon.