Should I be concerned?

Ava Grace has started hitting/slapping/punching her head when she doesn't get her way. Is this normal? She wants to be right in front of you so you can see her do it, but DH and I just ignore her and after a minute or so it stops. She has always been my drama queen, so a part of me wants to laugh, but I don't know if I should worry or not?? :unknw: Evan has never hit or slapped anyone, let alone himself, so this is definitely a new one for me. What do y'all think?

 

Cindy-it's normal. Trevor used to do it here. And like you said, right in front of us so we'd see. <_< Sometimes I think he kept doing it because of the attention we gave him when we'd tell him to stop it. Sometimes too he would bang it on doors. But that has since passed. Hopefully it will pass quickly for Ava as well. I know it's not fun to see. :hug99:

 

Wow, that's a hard one. None of my kids have done that before, either. Since it sounds like she's doing it for attention, I think you are doing the right thing by ignoring. If she ups it and gets to the point of hurting herself, then you probably will need to put the kabosh on it, by consequencing her for it. However, I say at this point consider it her form of a temper thing and ignore. :hug99:

 

Cindy,
Mattie does this too. She has for a couple of months now and I hope she out grows it. She has hurt herself a couple of times by banging it on the floor. We normally just ignore her, but those times we have tried "talking" to her in a calm voice. I am sorry I don't have the answer for you. It is hard to watch, b/c she gets so upset, but she is also my dramatic one.

GL, if you find out what works let me know. :hug99:

 

Gabe does it, too. Mostly he bangs his head on the ground, but sometimes he will hit himself. It's just a way to get out his frustration.

 

Luke went through this stage too. Usually it was if I caught him being really rough with Lila, I would say "Gentle, Luke" & he would start hitting himself in the head. The first few times I would say something like "oh no, don't hurt Luke" but then I realized that is what he wanted so I started ignoring him & he doesn't do it anymore. They are just learning what gets a reaction out of us, I think.

 

Ditto the being a phase - that I wish Jackie would get out of quickly!! But we asked the pedi., who said some kids just do that.

 

Yep, Owen is my headbanger. He does it purely out of frustration, or sometimes when he's really tired. I finally stopped giving him attention when he did it, and ignore it, and this has really curbed the amount of banging.

 

Cindy, Rebekah doesn't bang her head, however she will pull her hair or scratch/pinch herself to get attention. I agree with everyone else and think it's a phase. Let's all hope they get over it soon! GL!

 

One of my boys used to do that. I gave a big reaction the first couple times, and then caught him looking over between "knocks" to see if I was watching. At that point, I realized it was for attention and started actively ignoring it. I started getting up, turning my back on him and walking away. It stopped almost immediately after I did that a couple times.

 

Yep Ryan still does it. He used to hit his head on the floor, but I think he finally figured out that it hurt too much. So now he just smacks himself on the head. He only does it during temper tantrums.