K.C.
give her a soft hammer to hit herself with
My 4 month old daughter is punching herself in the face - HARD! It started about a month ago, and we thought she was trying to get her hand to her mouth to suck on it, but now she has the coordination to put her hand in her mouth, and she is still doing this behavior. Any ideas? We have her 4 month check up early next week, and will most definitely be asking the dr about it, but I was wondering if any of you had any thoughts to this?
give her a soft hammer to hit herself with
If she is hitting herself in her head, she may have a headache. Sometimes when babies have a headache they will bang their head or hit themselves in the head. Or she may be doing it as a way to channel her frustration. I would redirect her and ask your ped what he/she thinks about it.
She might like your reaction. Or, she might actually like the sensation if she has some degree of sensory integration disorder (very common, and not necessarily anything to be too worried about. See more here: http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-proces... )
If you are reacting strongly each time she does this, try to be calm and NOT react at all. Just casually redirect her attention elsewhere. My grandboy went through this in two separate stages, the second one tapering off at age 4. In his case, it doesn't seem to be anything more than a way to get attention now. So we make sure we're noticing him often when his activity and behavior are less surprising.
Even though she can get her hand into her mouth, her movment might be stuck. She may just wanted her hand up, but coudnt stop herself. She is still pretty little, and is still learning how to control herself. Im sure she is fine. Whens he does this, just grab her hand, and hold it down for a moment. She will most likely stop, and if not, just hold her hand down again.
Something itches. Most likely her nose and/or eyes. She probably has a bit of an allergy, or the air in your home is very dry. Try using a humidifier, and some baby saline nose drops.