16 month old banging his head, hits, kicks, dr says ok, please help?

Question

For no reason at all he will bang his head. He loves to head butt. He does bang his head when he is throwing a fit and is very aggressive. I have 4 kids, 8-5-2-1. I have never had one do this. The doctor says remove him from the situation and that it is normal. I am so scared he is going to hurt himself.

Answer 1

I have a 15 month old daughter who does the same thing, when she throughs a temper tantrum she'll just throw herself backwards. This is my third child and i jsut want to give you some reassurance they grow out of it. By telling him no he'll do it more as hard as it is try to ignore it. I always try to get her into something else but don't say no to her because it eggs her on. Toddlers ar very resistnat to pain and if hurts they'll stop. hang in ther ehope this helps ease you.

Answer 2

I am not trying to scare you, but my son started to head butt things when he was 11 months old. The headbanging began at 14 months. He would get angry for no obvious reason and began throwing fits and bang his head into the ground. He would kick and hit and get agressive too. We found out soon after that he was Autistic and these were symptoms that we missed. If nothing else, it may be worth looking into. Better safe than sorry. I am not so convinced that this type of behavior is normal in a child so young. I would expect to see it in a two year old maybe. Normal or not though, your child is doing this for a reason. Removing him from the situation only helps in the short term. It would be better to try to get to the root of the problem. Try keeping a journal to see if you can narrow down what is bringing on these attacks. Write down what he is doing, what is going on around him and what type of interactions were going on. For example, He askedfor a cookie and you told him no. You changed the channel on the television. He was playing with blocks and couldn't get a piece to fit etc. It is work but it does help. If your son is able to talk, ( mine can't communicate) you could ask him once he settles down. Just do so in a mild manner. Ask if he was upset because he needed help. To prevent my son from hurting himself we would try to comfort him. If that didn't work then we just put him somewhere safe until he calmed down. Good luck

Answer 3

I know it sounds off but there are studies that say toddlers who bang their heads are actually showing signs of higher intelligence. I don't remember where I read this, but you may want to look into that. As for the kicking and hitting, that's totally normal behavior for an active toddler. I wouldn't worry about him hurting himself.

Answer 4

My daughter used to bang her head on the floor during tantrums because she knew we would rush right to her side and pick her up. Once we turned our back on her and ignored the behavior or removed her from the situation she stopped doing it because she wasn't getting the reaction she wanted.

He might give himself a bump or a couple bruises, but nothing serious. Ignoring bad behavior at this stage if often the best way to stop it.

Answer 5

that's a temper tantrum. some teenagers roll on the floor kicking, others get up screaming, some bang their heads - that's purely her approach. regrettably, you could desire to ignore approximately it. while she's doing this, make beneficial she's faraway from something that would desire to truly harm her and ignore approximately her. She does it to get your interest, so do not communicate over along with her - purely walk out of the room. she would be in a position to end while she realizes it won't get any reaction of of your, yet somewhat make you leave her presence all mutually.

Answer 6

He isn't going to hurt himself. My daughter used to bang her head when having a tantrum. I ignored it. When that didn't get her the attention she wanted she tried biting herself. I ignored it, when that didn't get her the attention she wanted she would throw herself onto the ground so hard she would literally bounce. I ignored it. When that didn't get her the attention she wanted she tried holding her breath. She almost passed out once...but again I ignored it. Finally she gave up and rather than throwing tantrums to get her way she would try to negotiate. I would then sit down and discuss with her our rules and WHY she couldn't have what she wanted at that time.

Answer 7

SOMEDAY HE WILL BANG HIS HEAD VERY HARD AND HE IS NOT GOING TO LIKE IT, AND THAT WILL HOPEFULLY BE ENOUGH TO STOP HIM FROM BANGING HIS HEAD ON THINGS!
ANOTHER METHOD IS TO IGNORE HIM WHEN HE IS THROWING A FIT, HE IS JUST TRYING TO GET A RISE OUT OF YOU. WHEN HE KICKS AND HITS YOU HE NEEDS A TIMEOUT.
IF YOU GIVE HIM A TIMEOUT EVERY TIME HE ACTS UP, HE WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE SERIOUS, AND HE SHOULD STOP HITTING, ETC. IT WILL BE HARD AT FIRST BECAUSE CHILDREN ARE ALWAYS TESTING YOU, TO SEE WHAT THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH. SO IF YOU STICK TO THE TIMEOUTS EVERY TIME HE ACTS UP, HE WILL MOST LIKELY STOP ACTING UP. BUT, IF YOU DON'T DO IT EVERY TIME, HE WILL NOT TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY, AND HE WILL KEEP ACTING UP. YOU CAN GIVE HIM A WARNING BEFORE TIMEOUT. TIMEOUT SHOULD BE ONE MINUTE FOR EACH YEAR OF AGE. GOOD LUCK, IT WILL PAY OFF, IT JUST TAKES TIME!

Answer 8

my is 32 month old and still does it evry doctor has told me is normal too i try o remove it from the situation alos putting him in time ut has help him understand that he is not allowed to do that and he is doing it less everything

Answer 9

It is attention seeking. My daughter does the same thing.

What we do is just take her away from the wall and set her in her crib in her room. She cries, but she has also learned that mommy and daddy aren't playing into the game.