One-year-old hits himself in the head

[frazzledgirl]

DS is 13 months - lovely, cheerful, affectionate, sociable little bub who seems reasonably alert etc.

And he hits himself in the head! Not hard enough to hurt, in fact last night he was hitting himself and going into gales of laughter, possibly partly at my horrified face.

I'm trying to be cool and suppress the PFB 'oh god is there something wrong' feelings.

Is this pretty normal? Or weird?

It's normal. He's learnt that this gets a reaction, he finds this funny and will continue doing this until he learns that he won't get a reaction/he hurts himself. Have you tried turning around and ignoring him when he does this?

Usually I do ignore him, and he doesn't do it for long. It just looks so strange...

it's the same pringiple as little darlings throwing food/toys off their highchair. They like the reaction. Ah, bless!

Little ratbag.

Didn't mind quite as much before my sister said it made him look 'a bit simple'.

Then I started wondering, but clearly he's smarter than me if he's already worked out how to press my buttons like that...

They learn this alot earlier than this I'm afraid. Did your little one not cry as a tiny baby then stop when they were picked up/fed? Their brain processes this and they learn that when they cry, someone comes and tends to their need. It's a learnt process about how best to get a reaction from the person looking after them.

ds is now 9, he likes to walk around making wookie noises from Star wars (ughh sounds). I know what you mean.