So I have no idea what to do about this. Anytime baby girl gets something taken away from her or if she gets mad, she is now throwing herself backwards, and CONSTANTLY hitting her head on everything (the wall, the floor, me). Normally I just check her to make sure she is okay, and then ignore her until she stops throwing her fit.
I am worried though about her constant head banging and I don't want this to get any worse. Any tips? Commiseration?
Re: Tantrums and injuries
Ick...no fun!!
DD throws the tantrums when something is taken away - she grits her gums, starts going into a convulsion and starts screaming. Eventually, she shuts down and throws herself on to the ground for a more dramatic effect. I ignore, but I don't know what I would do if she threw herself and actually hit her head. My first idea would be to ignore, bit if you are concerned about injury, maybe if you see it coming, you could sit her on her bottom on the carpet and let her do her thing? Maybe I'm wrong and totally off here according to someone that has already BTDT. But, I think that would be my first instinct; make sure she's going to be safe and let her work through it herself so that she knows she won't get a response from me with that behavior, but also keeping her safe while she works through it.
GL! I am sure that's gotta be hard to watch.
DH talked about this with the doc today... LO not only does it during temper tantrums but just about any time he feels like it. He does it for attention, and I guess when he is bored. He will hit his head on things (table, floor, etc) but also hit his head with toys, etc. Sometimes there's a warning, such as a tantrum, and other times he will randomly start smacking the crap out of his head.
Apparently it's a good self-soothing technique for them.... though we can't understand how it could be. Our doctor told us to simply ignore it. He's been OK even though he's gotten a couple bruises on his forehead (and BTW his head is in the 98/99 percentile lol). I think it's worse for us to watch than for him to experience. I think on occassion if it looks like LO is really hurt you can give a quick snuggle to calm LO down but that's it. Anything else pretty much indulges the behavior. This is something we are just starting to work on... it's a habit to grab the toy out of his hand or make him stop but he needs to do it on his own after learning he gets nothing from it. GL!
BFP #2 03/08/11 EDD 11/16/11 DD Born on 11/04/11
BFP #3 08/29/12 EDD 05/06/13 M/C on 08/30/12
BFP #4 11/01/12 EDD 07/09/2013 M/C on 12/28/12
BFP #5 04/30/13 EDD 01/03/14 DS Born on 01/02/14
BFP #6 01/11/15 EDD 09/22/15 M/C 03/09/15
DS does that too, I just try to catch his head if I can, since he have tile and hardwood. I usually know when he's about to throm himself back, so I let him fall but just catch his head before it hits then let him lay on the floor.
Thanks for the good advice and support ladies.