My 9 month old daughter has a habit to head bunt people including me and her father! She seems to do it when she is tired also sticking her fingers in our mouth! I never heard or saw a child having a habit of head bunting. Her daycare provider asked me on Saturday if she did this to me and I was shocked because now I know that she doesnt just do it to her parents. Does anybody have any suggestions? It hurts and this habit has to stop. I am running out of Tylenol!
My parents called it "toots". Apparently both my brother and I did it. And my brother's daughter did it until she was about a year old. Then she just grew out of it. I think it's fairly common.
She's not doing this out of meanness, so my suggestion would be to get her to sleep before she starts doing it.
I am no expert by any means, but we have had one child in the family that did this, not only to people but to objects, he grew out of it, and is now very intelligent and perfectly fine. My grandmother always said that children who rock or head butt are using excess energy and are actually very smart children, I don't know how much water this holds but I bet that if you give it some time that it will stop, maybe you can just hold her so that she is not in close range of your head in the mean time LOL.
It may just be a habit she has aquired by watching/mocking another child that she has to get herself to fall asleep. I am sure that its nothing to worry about. If she is ready to sleep, just lay her in her crib instead of holding her so that she wont have the opportunity to head- butt anyone. good luck! have a great day!
hey jeniffer, my doughter did the hitting thing in the face! but i started teaching her sign language at 9 months and that was one of the first things we taught her. i think she respnded well to giving her something to do intead of hitting. which was saying suave( spanish for gentle) and taking her hand and gently rubbing it down my face. now its sooooo cute, whenever i say suave she stops what shes doing and pats my face of hers! Repitition is the key! other words like more, milk, dirty diaper, and up were great for her to be signing instead of screaming! good luck!
J.,
My name is K.. My youngest son did the head bunting thing when he was a toddler. He is now 7 and I found that redirecting him after doing it as a young toddler helped. After he was able to understand no I started telling him no and then redirecting. And if I could catch him right before actually making contact I would. That is a tricky thing though. If alternatives dont work then I would talk to your pediatrician and see if they have any recommendations.
My son used to love to do this too. It is very normal. I also had a nephew who would head butt the door. For the most part we had to quit ruff housing with him until he grew out of it
As for the sticking the fingers in your mouth, all of my children have done that. They are exploring. This is all new to them. They don't understand what is in there or where it goes to. I would gentle nibble and tell them I would bite if them put their fingers in my mouth. It worked for my girls, but now I have a biting problem with my son. So take it or leave it. I hope this helps some how.
My one year old had a simular bad habit. She liked to hit people in the face and laugh at you. At about nine months old your child can understand most of what you say to her and the rest she understands the feeling behind it. So we just started scalding her everytime she did it. You know we just told her that it hurt and we didn't like it and that it wasn't nice. It took a little while but she finnally got the picture and quit doing it. You just have to make sure to send this message to her everytime she does it.
You just need to firmly but tenderly say, no no that hurts mommy. Continue saying it, it will go away. My oldest daughter did for a while, and I asked her doctor and that is what she said. She also said to do it back, and she will get the point. She did it to her sister when she was 4 days old, and that was the final straw. Anyway, try that, it works I promise. 9mths is the age to start setting boundaries, just no no that will burn you, or no no that will hurt, or no no, no touch. That is it, she will get it.
My 6 yr old son did that when he was a baby and grew out of it by the time he was 2. I too am/went (going) through this with my 10 month old son. My husband and i started a new game with him whenever he felt the need to head butt us, we would hold his head (gently) and rub our foreheads together with his. He now no longer head butts us and now we just do the head rub (we dont hold his head anylonger since he knows how to do it) It is like eskimo kissing or rubbing noses just with the forehead. This may not be a solution, but, it sure saved us from knots and headaches. We like it cuz its kinda affectionate. AND doesnt hurt
We also changed the fingers in the mouth thing (kinda) as well. this too is natural and many children do it. They just want to see what you have, what they have, what the difference is and so on. It is part of learning. I have started that when he does this, i point to his mouth and say "mouth" then, i continue around the face, next the nose, then eyes. to get him interested in the rest of the face and not concentrate just on the mouth. Not a solution either, but I figure if he is ready to explore alittle, I will help him learn and show him I am interested in his games/learning.
My daughter did it too, so it might be more common than you think. And you are right it has to stop and the sooner you can get it to stop the better. They say that when a child has a bitting problem to bite them back and generally speaking they will not bite again. We did this with out little girl, we head butted her and since she has not done it. We didn't do it very hard, just enough to hurt and she cried, but it seemed to get the point through. I think children that age do not realize the pain they are causing and it helps them to feel it too. I hope this helps it worked for us, maybe it will work with your little one.
