September 2015 Moms

Head banging before sleep time

My little baby girl has gotten into the bad habit of rocking on all fours and bumping her head against the side of the crib in order to fall asleep since almost 6 months. She's 10 months now and continues to do, sometimes for longer periods of time before naps and nighttime sleep and if she wakes up in the middle of sleep - she will do it to fall back asleep. Never during the day when she's playing. She naps pretty wel and sleep ok overnight for the most part otherwise. She doesn't do it hard enough to injure herself (we put up crib bumper as padding).  It usually lasts 10 mins, sometimes longer until 15 mins. It seems she has to always do it to fall asleep so I assume it's her self soothing mechanism. 
She otherwise developing wel and meeting all her milestones and in a great mood when she wakes up.
any other moms with similar issues? If so, just accept it and know it's her self soothing ?
thanks for any advice !!

Re: Head banging before sleep time

  • Our son spends a good amount of time rocking on all fours too before falling asleep.  He usually stands for awhile, rolls around the crib, and then the finale before falling asleep is the rocking.  Or he'll fall asleep with one arm up holding onto one of the crib rails.  

    When he wakes up he also likes to stand sometimes in the corner of his crib with his back against the rails and bang the back of his head onto the wall?!  The way he does this reminds us of a pro-wrestler standing up on the ropes, haha.  Or he knocks with his hand very loudly on the wall over and over...it's noisy over here!!  :)
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  • So helpful to know others are going through the the same thing !! 
  • Could have written this myself. Our little guy goes at it like a rock star when he's tired. It's like he's using up his last bit of energy before finally falling asleep. The only downside is if I've got hold of him, been on the receiving end of those head bangs, and damn it they hurt! 
  • Yea I can't even hold her cuz when I do she thinks it's playtime lol
    the minute she goes in the crib it's rocking and head banging nonstop until she tires herself out lol
  • Yes!! When LO did it the first time it kind of freaked me out. I talked to our pediatrician and she said a lot of babies do it for various reasons. It's really common when they're teething as well. He's not doing it much these days but has switched to shaking his head "no" when I lay him down. I thought for a while they were sleep fighting tactics, turns out it's actually a way to help them fall asleep.
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  • So as I was reading through my what to expect the first year book, they had a spot that talked about head banging on the crib. I immediately thought of your post! It said it has to do with the rocking motion we use to give them and also the head banging de stresses them. It said more but I read it last night and can't really remember. 
  • Received this email this morning...  Ahhh, they like it! Funny little things.:smile:  

  • I have been reading up about it a lot, it seems that's it's relatively normal. I'm gunna bring LO To the pediatrician tomorrow about it because she does it for so long ! Sometimes up to 25-30 mins and I just worry about any type of head injury.
     
    Let you know what they say! Lol
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