Hitting himself

[NZMummy]

My 2 year old has a habit of hitting himself in the head whenever he thinks that he has done something wrong or when he is frustrated that he is not making himself understood. I am not sure why he hits himself - we use time out rather than smacking. Has anyone experienced a similar behaviour in their toddler and have any advice on how to successfully deal with it. I have tried ignoring it - which seems to make it worse. Usually we comfort him or explain to him that he must not hit anyone (including himself). I am wondering now whether he keeps doing it to get sympathy or whether it is just a symptom of having limited comunication abilities. I am more concerned now because recently he has become more rough with the hitting. He is generally a confident, happy little boy.

We had this problem when our son was two also. Or when he couldn't do something he wanted with his toy... out of frustration it was usually.

I just used to get his hands and hold them down to his sides and say "No, no" calmly "we don't hit ourselves" and gradually he stopped doing it.
It's just consistency with the behavioural monitoring, you are dong the right thing and you will see results!!!

[Timmys mom]

Timmy does this a little too. (He's two also). But he's usually just playing. He'll hit himself, like in the stomach, and then fall on the floor and rool around. But usually he's just playing and smiling and laughing when he does it. I have seen him give himself a spanking after we spanked him before. I'm not sure why. Sounds like its a two year old thing. Keep doing what your doing and he'll grow out of it.