Head Banger

Clay's developed the habit of banging his head against things. And I'm not talking about the random (and regular) pratfalls -- I'm talking about him purposefully knocking his head against something. Sometimes it's something soft (the carpet), but more often it's something hard (the wall, the tile floor, etc).

Yesterday, he was pushing a stool around and around the kitchen. Eventually, it tipped over and fell. It didn't fall on him, but he wasn't able to get it back upright and got frustrated, quickly. By the time I got around the island to him, he was howling and bopping his head over and over against a leg of the stool. I just put my hand on the stool where he was hitting it and let him go a couple of more times into my hand, and then picked him up to comfort him.

According to this article, it's a pretty common phenomenon for children who are frustrated and not yet able to communicate to bang their heads. Being common, however, doesn't make it any less unsettling. As the article suggests, we've been trying to not make a big deal out of it so as to prevent encouraging it further. I'm just hoping/expecting that the behavior will diminish as he becomes more capable of communication.

Clearly, he has inherited his father's patience . . .