Hitting Self

[DaycareMom]

My son is 3 yo. He has started hitting himself in the head every time he gets frustrated/mad.
I am always telling him that we don't hit - even ourselves. When I talk to him, he will calm down, but it's just his immediate reaction whenever he is upset.

Has anyone else dealt with this? What did you do?
Please - any advice/insight would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

[Leigh]

Honestly, just let him hit himself unless he is to the point of actually harming himself. Lots of kids do this, some more than others, but it is PROBABLY just a phase where he is trying to hurt himself to get attention. Go bang your head on the floor for a while...do you do it enough to actually hurt yourself, or do you use some restraint? Your child is (most likely) restraining himself, as well.

[NeedaVaca]

I've seen several kids do this kind of thing. As a matter of fact my DS did it around that age too BUT he wasn't really hurting himself,he was really just trying to get my attention. He would sometime put his hands over his face and would be covering his eyes BUT he would be watching me through his fingers (does that make sense?)to see my reaction. I found ignoring it worked best It would be a different story if he was really hurting himself.

[melilley]

My ds is 17 months and did this for about a month, plus he would hit his head on the floor, when he was around 14mo. and occasionally still does it. It upset me at first, well honestly it still does, but not as much now because I know that he just wants to get a reaction. He will do it and look at me! I just tell him that we don't hit/bang and walk away. It doesn't last too long.

I have a 2 yo. dck who did this ALL the time so I think that's why my ds started to do it, but maybe not.

[Shell]

Agree with everyone above. My ds did this for quite some time, and eventually stopped. It was an attention thing- he was really frustrated, and didn't know how to express it. I would ignore it, and then when he was calm, would hug and kiss him.

[DaycareMom]

I feel a little better knowing that others have experienced this and it seems to be semi-normal. I was a bit worried.

I will try ignoring. It definitely could be an attention thing.

Thank you all so much!