My lovely boy and I. (Image by author)
Children are sources of delight to their parents but parenting also comes with a number of challenges. One of which is protecting our children from any form of harm.
I never quite appreciated the labor of love of my mother over me the way I should until I became a father! My wife will often remind me whenever I am tempted to be impatient with my baby boy that this baby is the only reason you are called a father!
It is not that she is unaware that a person could be addressed as a father without any filial relationship with the person who addresses one as a father, but she always want me to remember certain facts about myself.
I grew up into adulthood without any serious bonding with my dad. He was a travelling businessman who died when I was too young to remember our relationship together.
Given my experience, I was determined to form a very strong bonding with everyone of my children from the very day they arrive this terrestrial ball called earth. I was going to ensure they do not miss what I miss as a child- the affection of my dad.
The pain caused by children's head banging
One of the things that bothers me as a father who loves to care for his baby is the habit of head banging by my baby who clocked two on the last day of the month of October, this year.
God's Ambassador, as I fondly call him, is a lovely and energetic baby. He loves music and will play his piano toy which I bought for him, to develop his perceived talent, on a good day.
The problem however, is the way he acts when he wants attention or his request is not quickly granted. He will go near any solid object, including the wall, tiles on the floor, bed woody part, iron doors, woody chair etc., and hit his head hard on it. Then, he will put his hand on his head and start crying.
Sometimes, his head will swell up in the process. My wife and I were concerned about his safety. Here is a boy who cannot expressed himself verbally apart from saying words like water, bread, mummy, eat etc.
How do we tell if he has a headache? We were in pain for his safety. Therefore, we sought for information online about head banging in children. We learnt about:
The psychology of children's head banging
Most of the materials that we found online affirmed children's tendency to bang their head against object when throwing tantrum.
We learnt that if he isn't showing any developmental ineptitude, we have no reason to be alarm because he will outgrow it.
Children head bang for several reasons including:
Comfort: I wonder how on earth children will derive comfort from banging their head against object but many experts seem to believe that head banging provides children with a rocking sensation such as they experienced when in their mother's womb.
Balance: Head banging is said to test children's brain and improve balance.
Relaxation : It could help children release tension and sleep
Stimulation: It could also stimulate them.
Attention: I am quite familiar with this. Children engage in head banging to get attention.
Is there any way out?
Protecting children who head bang
From literature, distracting children with toys, tapping into their love for music and rhythm is one way to deal with head banging in children.
Personally, this has not being very helpful to my baby. You will recall that I did say that my baby has a toy piano and enjoys playing it on a good day. But it doesn't stop him from head banging.
The best way to deal with head banging according to expert is to ignore it. Yes, ignoring might really work because we learnt from his caretaker at school that he does not act like that when in school !
But it is quite difficult for us as parents to ignore our boy when he hit his head against iron door for example, and his head swell up as a result.
If you have any good suggestion on how we could help manage head banging in our toddler till he outgrow it, kindly let us know by commenting on this post.
Just hearing about this... Would need to read more on the topic. Thanks for this!
You are welcome. If you find anything helpful as you read on the topic, kindly share with me
Alright sir. Will definitely do so.
Thank you sir
Congratulations @saintgentle! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 3500 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz: