Does your child bang his head to fall back to sleep?

[Anonymous]

My 20 month old son has banged his head to fall back to sleep since about 9 months old. As he has gotten older and stronger - it has gotten louder and more "injurious" (he breaks the skin on his forhead) so we moved him 3 months ago to sleep in a pack and play so he would have a softer surface surrounding him. We also put a 3" mattress in the pack and play to further cushion it.

I had him evaluated 2 months ago by both early intervention and a private OT, PT and speech therapists to see if any had suggestions for what we could do to make him stop b/c I was tired of my pedi blowing my concerns off and I wanted to make sure he was on track given that the head banging could be a red flag for a larger issue. Everyone agreed that he is on track for fine and gross motor skills as well as speech. He is a happy and very engaging little boy who has good eye contact, imaginative play, very social, etc so no concerns about a larger issue such as Autism, etc. However all of them also agreed he has mild sensory issues b/c of the head banging and he walks on tip toes sometimes (he is now fitted for orthotics which have reduced his toe walking while he wears them dramatically). The OT found that he has low registration so he toe walks and bangs his head for stimulation.

I can't put my finger on what triggers the head banging which adds to my anxiety of trying to stop him. We use a video monitor to watch his sleep patterns and generally what we've found is that he bangs his head for less than 5 minutes to fall asleep for his nap and will usually fall asleep within 10 minutes. He will often start banging again 90 minutes into his nap to try and put himself back to sleep - sometimes successful but often not. He does not usually bang his head to fall asleep at night - he will sometimes play happily in his pack and play for up to an hour without banging his head which baffles me - I would think he'd be frustrated and start banging to go to sleep quicker. He will usually sleep for about 10-11 hours and we'll hear him banging again when he wakes up - but again not always. Sometimes he'll wake up and just play happily. We don't think he bangs throughout the night once he is asleep.

He is doing OT - we do a ton of exercises applying pressure to his joints to try and mature his nervous system. We've tried a weighted blanket without any consistent results as well.

I did a search in the DCUM archives and saw someone suggested going to the sleep clinic at Children's so I left them a message yesterday. If anyone has any other experience or suggestions I would really appreciate it. A lot of what I've read online said kids usually outgrow this but I have a hard time believing that and would rather try any many things as I can to get him to stop - ugh.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

A lot of young kids will do headbanging, rocking, and other rhythmic/ritualistic behavior to go to sleep and it always seems to scare the crap out of parents esp. when it's to the point of skinbreaking like with your son. It sounds like you are following up pretty systematically and I can't think you've left anything out, especially with your idea of the sleep clinic.

Perhaps other than the pack and play, a mattress on the floor? Does he have a sleep lovey?

[Anonymous]

My son did this too. He stopped around his 3rd birthday. My pediatrican said some boys do this for extra stimulation. I didn't really worry about it. I found he did it less during the summer months maybe because he got more time outside...not sure if that was the reason though...? Hang in there.

[Anonymous]

20:41 - Thank you for posting - it gives me hope that maybe our son will stop doing this at some point.

I'm just curious if your son used to bang his head so hard that it would break the skin, etc.? Did your doctor ever worry about any long term effects from the banging? Now that our son is in the pack and play and we basically get him up when we hear him start he isn't causing his head to bleed anymore but we still worry about him damaging his brain, etc. He actually lays on his belly and will fold his head and bang on his knuckles b/c there is nothing else hard in his pack and play that he can bang against - very sad and disturbing to watch.

Were you able to transition your son to a big boy bed ok or did you have to move the mattress away from the wall and not use bed rails? I wish I could transition our son to a mattress on the floor now (away from the wall b/c I fear he'll bang on the wall) but I can't trust him yet (he still runs out into the street, etc. so I'm sure he'd be climbing the furniture if he was out of the confines of his pack and play. One OT I spoke with had a former patient who would bang his head and once they transitioned him to a big boy bed he stopped for some reason.

I appreciate your thoughts -

[Anonymous]

You could try a weighted blanket if he is doing this for pressure/sensory seeking. The owner of dream catchers weighted blankets is very helpful and you could ask her if a weighted blanket has helped any clients with head banging. They have a website.

[Anonymous]

OP, I totally sympathize. We've been in a similar place for the past few months. My son turned 2yo in january and he began banging his head incessantly at about 22 months. He would do it during the daytime when he got frustrated, and then also at night, both to get himself to sleep and in the middle of the night (sometimes for hours). He would even pull himself up during naps at daycare, bang his head on the wall, and then go back to sleep. He had a giant horrible bruised goose egg on his forehead practically from Thanksgiving to New Years. I posted on this forum a few times in December and got a lot of really great advice. We also did a bunch of consults, including a neurologist and early intervention, and they ruled out the obvious concern (autism) and just about everything else.

What made a big difference for my son was ear tubes - he got them in late December, and it is like night and day. He still does the head banging, although less forcefully and sort of deliberately, like he wants to be stopped. (He also will sometimes hit himself in the head with his hands, or headbutt me when I'm holding him, which is really painful and makes me feel even worse about the fact that he does this to himself deliberately.) The tubes have also helped a ton with his speech, which is helping with tantrums or frustration -- at least now he can say what he wants rather just finding a wall or the floor to bang his head on. BTW I don't mean to suggest that ear tubes would be a solution for you. I believe all the doctors and experts we talked to who said that some kids do this as a self-soothing mechanism, which would explain why my son still does it even though it seems to have been provoked initially by the fluid in his ears. There are still times when my son wakes up at night for some reason and it's almost like he can't sleep without one good whack of his head - I've learned not to grab him until he goes for a second one. BTW we also toyed with moving him to a bed, but he treated it like a trampoline, so I'm going to try again at 2.5 years.

One last thing - I just want to say that I get how insane this makes a parent, and beyond that I now have even more incredible sympathy and respect for people who are dealing with really serious developmental issues. I barely slept when his headbanging was really bad, and we never left him with a babysitter for months. My whole life was hostage to his headbanging. So I hope you find something that helps. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

22:48 - Thank you so much for responding. I'm so sorry that you are dealing with this as well. I totally agree that my level of anxiety from this is off the charts but I know it's minor relative to what many other parents on this forum are dealing with. It's just so disturbing to us.

I think it was your thread I was reading about where someone suggested the sleep clinic at Childrens. Did you touch base with them? I left them a message on Friday but I'm not sure if head banging is something they deal with. We've tried a weighted blanket without much success however I'm going to touch base with the company this week to exchange ours for a larger and heavier one to see if that will do anything. One other suggestion from our OT is a vibrating pillow if the blanket doesn't work.

My fear is that son has done this for so long now - over half of his life - that it's a habit much like sucking his thumb he uses to self soothe back to sleep. Have your doctors basically told you to just ride it out and hopefully he'll outgrow it? My pedi isn't concerned at all which baffles me.

[Anonymous]

I disagree with those who think you should ignore that much head banging. I would consult with a top-notch neurologist and developmental pediatrician.

[Anonymous]

I was a headbanger, I would lay on my stomach and bang my head on my pillow until I fell asleep. I did this because I felt like ghosts were in my room and this action would keep them from coming near me. It would also keep my mind off dwelling on being scared. The constant pounding noise was soothing. I believe this action cannot be good for your brain or hearing, I recall how loud it sounded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a headbanger, I would lay on my stomach and bang my head on my pillow until I fell asleep. I did this because I felt like ghosts were in my room and this action would keep them from coming near me. It would also keep my mind off dwelling on being scared. The constant pounding noise was soothing. I believe this action cannot be good for your brain or hearing, I recall how loud it sounded.

This sounds like a mental illness

[Anonymous]

Not a mental illness. My DD, now 8, still rocks to sleep.m when she was younger, DD was a leg banger. Is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Pp- I think that is OCD

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to move a kid who headbands into your bedroom on a mattress or cot, or into the bedroom with a sibling? That would be my first intuition as a mom. I would try that. The isolation of going to bed alone could trigger these self-soothing behaviors.

Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

* headbangs, not headbands

[Anonymous]

This is a common behavior for kids who were institutionalized. My son did it so much he had a huge open and infected sore on his head. I worked with him to stop it be sitting in his room when he went to sleep and if he started, I'd stop him. I also had to not take him in the car when he was sleepy unless I could sit in the backseat with him because he'd o it in the car. It didn't take long to break the habit - maybe a month or so.