Poor little Rafa doesn't always know how to get across his anger and frustration. He's not super verbal and so when he is stressed by those emotions, he's taken to trying to hurt himself, sort of. He also doesn't really like getting hurt, so it's not full on tantrum or massive head banging. He first started by bending over and knocking his head in the floor once or twice. Think downward facing dog. Then he looks at us to see if he's gotten our attention. I think that became too much effort because he then started banging his head on the spindles to our stairs, the back of the chair, or whatever was more easily in reach. He's given all that up and started biting his finger. Poor guy. We try to ignore the masochism and focus on whatever might be causing the frustration since he's really just doing those things to get attention. Hopefully the words will come soon before he does too much damage to his little body.
Josiah used to bang his head on things too when he was that age but thankfully grew out of that phase. He also went through a biting phase but it also passed. Sounds like you guys are doing the best thing.
ReplyDeleteI have a cousin who also did the headbanging. Hopefully, once he gets more verbal, the phase will end. It is better than many alternatives I can think of for dealing with frustration.
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