1 year old waking in night talking and banging head on cot!!please help!

[alibo]

ds is just one, and is waking a lot in the night babbling, not crying, and banging the end of the cot. last night he woke and started with the banging at 4.30am. he kept going quiet, but was still awake at 5.30am; at which point i went downstairs to get his milk, as he often wakes at 6am and has it then anyway. got upstairs and he'd dozed back off, but then was awake banging again half an hour later.so gave him his milk at 6.30, put him back and the talking and banging was still going on at gone 7am, so got him up. he never has more than 2.5 hrs sleep total in the day, either 2 equal naps, or one short , and one longer one. why is he awake so much in the night?? tried later tea, supper etc, nothing seems to make a difference. sometimes he wakes around midnight and starts talking and banging the cot, and this can go on for an hour! he must be about to cut some more teeth, as he still only has first two, can anyone help!

oh god alibo - my ds and yours were always up to the same thing - I hope my ds doesn't copy this one. maybe he needs to go into a bed?? I have heard ds crashing about in his bed but more his body hitting the bars rather than his head.
Maybe his teeth are hurting him - maybe some calpol the first time he wakes??

when DD started bang her head accidentally on the cot we switched to the travel cot at night, we were lucky because we had a regular cot sized travel cot so her mattress fitted, so the mesh bars meant no more head banging and she stopped waking

hi guys; about the head banging; i don't think banging his head accidently is waking him, as when he first wakes he just talks, but then starts banging his head or hands on the cot end whilst kneeling up. the cot ends are solid so can't put a bumper there; we have bumpers down the long sides, and he's usually asleep leaning on those anyway.(?)

Travel cot here too - end of headbanging, end of night waking. Also ended the man in the downstairs flat complaining about the noise! That was ds. Dd wasn't getting on in her cot either, and she's been on a mattress on the floor since 8 months ( 15 months now and shortly going into a bed ).

re. the headbanging. This is what ds did from 10 months. It's reasonably common, especially in very active babies and toddlers. Repetitive motion helps them to self-calm and unwind. The travel cot solved the problem anyway - he would still headbang, but we couldn't really hear it against the soft sides. When he was older the headbanging changed to sitting up and rocking against the sides. Now, at four, he lies in bed banging his feet on the mattress.

yikes; dh won't be too chuffed at ds moving to a travel cot from his mamas and papas cot which cost quite a lot of money wondering if we could wrap something round both ends to kind of pad it out?, any thoughts??

oh, the other thing, where could i get a travel cot that would take a cotbed matress; as most travel cot matrasses aren't designed for long term use are they??

We got a Baby Dan one which is quite a bit longer than most - not sure if the cot mattress would fit - time to get the tape measure out probably.

do you use a bumper round the cot? or just use baby duvets?? or tie a cushion to ds head with elastic band??