Someone talk to me about head banging in babies please!

[Pendulum]

No, not the heavy metal kind....

DD2 is 12 mths and has a habit of hitting herself, sometimes quite hard, on the side of her head with her hand, spoon or whatever else is lying about. Occasionally she makes herself cry.

This doesn't seem very clever to me and I've been trying to work out what she's up to. Remembered reading something about babies banging their heads against walls, floor, cot etc but \I can't remember what the "accepted wisdom" on this is. Can anyone explain/ does anyone have a view on whether DD's behaviour is something similar?

I think she's just working out what the results are . Babies aren't very clever sometimes...

DS still headbangs when he loses his temper (he's nearly 2) but makes sure he had a nice soft place to land on

thanks effieperine. Was yr DS's headbanging always related to temper?

maybe I need to stop reacting to it- I realised ealry on I shouldn't laugh, but sometimes I wince and/ or take implement away.

she does look quite a picture..... "must....crack... skull... with...spoon..."

I don't know but mine does this too - well not hitting himself on the head but he does bang his head repeatedly against different surfaces while smiling. I think it might be because he likes the noise. On the other hand, it might just be because he's odd ...

no, not always. Now it's definitely temper or frustration, but I think when they're smaller they're just seeing what it feels like (and forgetting that it can hurt!)

i have another headbanger (13 months) - i made the mistake of laughing one time and now if he falls over and bangs his head by mistake, he makes sure i am watching and then gets down and bangs his head again a few times saying bang each time.

think he must like the noise and cant hurt really cause he doesnt ever cry with it. they're all nutters.