2yr old head butting

edellc

as the title says, my 2yrs old son has taken to recently head butting, he head butts me, daddy and just recently the walls. Today for example he got out of his chair walked over to the wall and started headbutting it I told him to stop and he didnt just kept doing it, well did it 3 times before I got over to him to stop him and by this stage he was balling his eyes out and rubbing his head.

I will say today was a bad day nap wise and he doesnt sleep in his buggy when we are out and fights sleep until we are at home and he is in is cot so his nap was about 2hrs late as I just had to be somewhere so I was thinking maybe he was just wrecked tired and he seems to be going through a bit of a growth thing too, but not sure if that is what is causing this/

Has anyone else experienced this and if so how do you deal with it??

Any help appreciated so worried about his little head

elaney

My fella is the same Edellc when he is overtired he can hit his head off the wall
sometimes having a full on tantrum. They don't call them the terrible twos for nothing!. I keep him away from the wall and if he has a tantrum i just ignore him he soon realises he is not getting the attention he was looking for. My fella refuses to nap now so he can be very grumpy in the evening. You need the patience of a saint:D

edellc

oh elaney that is so good to know, not that your child is head butting too and hurting himself, but that others are going through this too

Yes his naps are a bit all over the place at the minute he is refusing to nap and then literally falling over come 5/6pm which is way to early to go to bed and he is so grumpy and annoyed which is so unlike him, but if I let him go for even a half hour nap at those times Im screwed for his bed time and he wont go to sleep until easily 10pm, so it becomes a very very long day for me and sheer exhaustion isnt even close to how I feel after those days.

Suppose its all part of the journey, just not a pleasant part at the moment

elaney

Our two could be twins mine is exactly the same i dread the evenings especially when i am due number two in a few weeks but i keep telling myself
its a phase and just endure it. Have you tried the naughty step or equivalent i started it a couple of weeks ago and he is less naughty. I am finding all i have to do lately is threaten it and he apologises.

edellc

The naughty step would never work here as he actually chooses to sit on the bottom step of the stairs and has done for ages, its his favourite place to sit and he plays with his toys

His grumpyness just manifests itself in him not wanting you to touch him or just sitting on the floor crying or not wanting his dinner and then headbutting walls and if he is sitting on my lap then me, but all are just down to tiredness and how can I punish him for that when its all down to him having a growth spurt.

However I would probably feel differently if I was due another in a few weeks, you brave girl....best of luck with the delivery and fingers crossed we both come out of the terrible two unharmed, you more so than me as with a new born on your hands you will need all the patience you can get xx

clappyhappy

hi, my last little guy, nearly three went through the same thing a few months ago. He wasn't taking any naps through the day and as ye mentioned the tiredness would hit him from 5-6pm. That was when the fun began, sulking, tantrums, fighting with the other two, refusing to eat, throwing toys etc. I tried everything, and eventually what worked for me was giving him a bath, just letting him play in the water for 20 mins sorted him out. He had a new lease of life, ate dinner and was in bed at his usual time of 7.30/8pm. He will be 3 end of Oct and it has all stopped now. I know its a nightmare but it will pass, good luck

edellc

never thought of chucking him in the bath..distraction distraction distraction...love it

normally when he is that tired i just try persevere and then come 7ish and he is due his bath i leave it off as he is so wrecked and then end up giving him one in the morning throwing everything out of sync, so will definitely be giving him a bath early to give him that extra boost to get him to 7.30/8ish, thanks for that its a great idea and so simple

clappyhappy

Hope it works for you, I know the feeling, you would try anything. Best of luck

LadyMayBelle

Wild card, but its not like he has a headache/earache/toothache no? That combined with toddler tiredness might make anyone want to bang their head.

KGLady

Small aside on the 'Naughty Step' it doesn't work for my two, as they are comfy sitting there and when we are going out and they have shoes/coat on the bottom step is where they sit to wait till Mammy has her coat on too. We instead have the 'naughty corner' and they have to face the corner with their hands at their side, so there is nothing to look at or distract them and they tend to reconsider their behaviour pretty quick

Also when my no2 started to fight off the daytime naps but would be in dire need of a rest, I used to bring her a snuggley blanket and her bedtime teddy on the sofa and put on something like one of the Pooh Bear movies which is nice and relaxed with calm music and no mad colours or flashing animations, she'd snuggle down and have a little 40 winks without even realising it.

edellc

If and when we need a punishment we have discussed the naughty corner, thankfully he is a very happy little boy who is always ready to cuddle and isnt bold at all, apart from when he is very tired but then I feel its a bit harsh to punish this as its due to him being tired and it just doesnt feel right.

I just wanted to know really if this was "normal" behaviour and if others have gone through it and how you have dealt with it. I totally appreciate those who have punished it but feel that is not the best course of action for me, when he does resist the nap and shows signs of the over tiredness then I am going to use the bath to give him a little bit of a boost so he will eat dinner and then sleep when bed time rolls around.

Thankfully he was so wrecked the other day that he was spark out come 1pm and he is holding my hard bringing me up to his cot or his nap so he knows he needs it, however we have had another few incidents of head butting the wall come nearer his bed time. So we are taking it one incident at a time, we dont want to raise a spoilt brat but punishing tiredness is just not the way to go for us.

KGLady

@OP Mammy always knows best! I completely agree with you that tired behaviour is not something to punish, its really not their fault their (already limited) ability for conscious choices on how to behave go out the window when their little bodies are exhausted; to be fair we grown ups are the same I really was commenting on the naughty corner as an alternative to a naughty step as I recognised your comments that its a place for your little man to be happy to sit down, like my own two - I really meant it as an aside for when such things ARE called for.

Bath time in the evening sounds like a brilliant suggestion, I hope it works out well for you.

edellc

@kglady completely got what u meant by naughty corner and yes when I need it will definitely use it...thank u so much for ur comments they are reassuring to know this is all normal behavior and I'm not raising a complete nutter hehehe