Our final solution for the head hitting

I would like to say the magic potion that Dr. Krohn gave us for head hitting worked like a charm, but I accidentally poured it down the drain, and his teeth kept hurting, and he kept hitting his head until we reached a low point. I was tired and miserable, Calvin was just following me around and hitting his mouth and Quinn and I were bickering about it all the time.

Then a few days ago, at three in the afternoon, I tried to get Calvin to take a nap in his crib. He was obviously exhausted. I held him in my lap on the rocking chair, hoping he would doze off, but instead he flailed his arms like a crazy boy and so I put him in the crib and went downstairs to get a glass of water.

When I came back, I walked into the room and my heart nearly stopped. His face was bloody and he had blood all over the pillow that I wrapped the crib in. He made his lip bleed. I picked him up and brought him into the guest room and breat fed him laying down, and he fell asleep in a few seconds. I checked to make sure he didn't do anything bad to his teeth, but it looked like he just cut his lip.

He slept for almost two hours on the futon. But I was stressed out for the rest of the day. I took the pillow off the crib and washed it. This was not going to work. It was obvious that he just hates the crib and he's getting overly tired.

We started out co-sleeping with him when he was young and we've always struggled to get him to sleep in the crib. When we got our new place we thought that it would be a good time to get him to sleep there because he is in a separate room and so he can't see us, so will go to sleep. It has worked on and off, but in general, he hates it. The point of the crib is to get kids to sleep without hurting themselves, but so far Calvin's most serious injuries have come from the crib.

So when Quinn came home we put the futon mattress on the floor of the bedroom, and Calvin has been sleeping there. He doesn't hit his head as much, and he never does it at bedtime. He's catching up on sleep and is noticeably happier. If he falls out of bed, it doesn't matter because it's only a couple of inches off the floor.

I can't tell you how happy I am that we found a solution to this problem. He just wasn't happy and was hitting his head to let us know.

The homeopathic remedy to head banging

We took Calvin to Dr. Krohn to talk about his head banging. She said that a lot of the kids she sees bang or hit their own heads...They seem to like it. Calvin even did it in her office, and did it a few times throughout the day. Each time he was trying to get attention, get his way, or he was having a temper tantrum.

She checked him over to make sure there wasn't anything physically wrong with him, other then his huge self-inflicted bruise. Then she asked us if we had a homeopathy kit. We didn't, but said we would try her homeopathic ideas. She consulted a book, and narrowed it down to two things. So she asked us a bunch of questions like "Does he seem malicious?" (no) "Does he seem restless or like a lot of activity" (yes) "Is he overly emotional?" (kind of)

She prescribed an Apis tablet. Apis is made out of bee venom, and is used to treat a lot of inflamatory problems, but also can help with certain emotional issues. Or else, people with certain emotional issues can benefit from it. I'm no expert, but it seems like homeopathy is about trying to figure out what type of person you are and then giving you herbs and remedies for your type for overall wellness. Anyway, they described his type as fidgety, restless and over emotional. I suppose, if he hit's his own head he can be seen as fidgety and over emotional.

She gave us a tiny tablet, about the size of a grain of sand, and told us to put it in a jar with 4 ounces of water and give him a half teaspoon three times a day. The results will come gradually. So in the next week or so I'll let you all know if he still hits himself.

Why does my toddler hit his own head?

Calvin has developed a disturbing habit in the past month of hitting his own head. If he's frustrated, like when I am cooking and not paying attention to him fast enough, he'll whack his head against the floor and start to cry. And if he's real upset about something he'll hit his head over and over. It's like a temper tantrum.

We don't know what to do, because we don't want to run up to him and give him loads of attention every time he hits his head, because that would be like a reward. I've been trying to casually stop him and distract him. But the other day I put him in his crib for a nap and he didn't fall asleep right away. Instead he cried, and I thought, he's OK, I'll check on him in a few minutes. But then I heard several loud booms from upstairs, like the neighbors were building furniture or something. But it wasn't the neighbors. It was Calvin hitting his head against the side of the crib. I picked him up, he was freaking out, and nursed him to sleep. He gave himself a huge bruise across his forehead.

We're taking him to the doctor to ask what we should do about it. I have a few theories: he might be in pain from teething, and hitting his head out of frustration. I put Oragel on his gums before bed, and he didn't do it. Other than that, he might be stressed out because we've been traveling so much and his grandpa just died and so he's picking up on my stress. He might just need more frequent snacks. I don't know. Hopefully my teething theory is right, because it's easy to fix and it will be over soon.

He's always been a very intense baby (ask my friends who try to babysit him while I swim) and I hope this isn't a sign of serious inner turmoil. Then again, he is a toddler. Don't they always have inner turmoil?

I'll post again tomorrow, after the doctor appointment, and hopefully I won't have to get him fitted for a helmet.