"Hurting" self...normal?

[AFWife]

My DS will be 1 year in a few weeks. The past couple of weeks he's been hitting his head on purpose. Like, if he sits up close to a wall and bangs his head he'll do it a few more times. He thinks it's funny...maybe it's the noise? Yesterday he purposefully head butted the sliding glass door with his forehead. He also smacks his pelvis (diaper on and off) especially when nursing or during a diaper change. There's no rash so it doesn't itch...

DH thinks it's normal...he says he's seen other kids do it. I just need confirmation

[Carhootel]

my son does this too and it's never made me worry, he doesn't do it a LOT though but like you said, when he's sitting against a wall he'll knock his head into it over and over and then crawl off and do something else. He doesn't seek out situations to do this but does it over and over again when it does happen. Does that make sense?

I guess it never worried me since I feel like he "tests" everything in his world by banging on it, or with it, or against it

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by Carhootel

I guess it never worried me since I feel like he "tests" everything in his world by banging on it, or with it, or against it

We do call him The Barbarian for this very reason....

[Carhootel]

that's a great name for him! we call my son a dinosaur because he likes to make some bizarre noises... testing his voice and the limits of it in a deep and peculiar way

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by Carhootel

that's a great name for him! we call my son a dinosaur because he likes to make some bizarre noises... testing his voice and the limits of it in a deep and peculiar way

Like a pterodactyl? Or TRex? Yep, that's my DS too!

[blumooned]

Yes!! My son does this too (& I think ours are the same age.) I don't know if it's "normal", but I do see it.

He does it accidentally the first time, and then does it over again a few times. I think he is trying to see what happened. Like, he bumps his head, feels pain, and then wonders - "what the heck just happened!?! Let me see if I can figure it out - I'll try to do it again, yep, that felt the same way, that must be what happened. OK, once more, yep, same thing! Maybe I'll try not to do that anymore . . . "

Just my guess!

[AFWife]

Erin: Yep, same age to the day

[wookie]

yep my 11mo does it too. a couple times he's "tried" too hard and he stopped cuz it hurt. testing cause and effect, imo. typical.