16 month old hitting and head butting

[crispychicken12]

Hi,

My 16 month old DS has lately started hitting himself in the head and headbutting anything and everything - including the sofa, the wall, today the window sill (with such impact I thought he would need to go to A&E)

When I cuddle him he will sort of force his head against mine and push against it.

This has been happening for about a month, but has progressed over the last week in how hard he is doing it.

He's not upset when he does it, it can be out of excitement, frustration or just randomly.

He feels the pain and will cry and calm after being consoled.

Is this normal behaviour?

He's hit all his milestones and expresses himself really well, I had no concerns prior to this. Today he head butted the window sill so hard I have never been so frightened. It was completely out of the blue, no tantrum or anything.

Yes mine did this. Stopped again eventually. Just a phase. Don't worry, I think it's a frustration thing that resolves itself. Shortly after the head butting DS decided it was better to hit me than himself- another phase. Then he went through chucking things phase.

I think the best thing is not to overreact as they enjoy watching reactions, so just calmly say no, and remove them to another place.

My DD went through this. She'd headbutt the granite kitchen floor in temper.
I'd just pick her up and move her to the carpeted room and didn't react outwardly. She stopped without an audience.

The breath holding was a pain as well. Kids are bloody hard work.

Oh god sounds like I've got it all to come haha, I got such a fright today. It was as though he was trying to hurt himself and I panicked

DD went through a hitting phase (didn’t get the head butting) around this age! I would have to watch her at softplay because she would try to hit other kids and push them over! She was a bit wild but it didn’t last long. She lovely now!

It’s just a phase, he’s a baby and will grow out of it. Just try to remove him from the situation to keep him safe.