Q: Baby, why are you patting your head?
Answer: There are many reasons, parents to understand and analyze it together!
"Doctor, my baby has been slapping his head for 10 months and hitting the cradle railing with his head. What's the matter? Is the baby's head uncomfortable? Will it hit his head? I'm so worried!" Parents often ask such questions on microblogs and clinics. In fact, older babies begin to express their emotions, states, feelings, etc. subjectively through body language, There are obvious individual differences in the expression of each baby. Some babies are good at performance, while others are very introverted.
Baby, why are you patting your head? There are many reasons, parents to understand and analyze it together!
Baby patted his head to show "joy, anger and sadness"
Infants aged 6 to 10 months will begin to rhythmically and rhythmically knock or even knock their heads, swing their bodies, hit objects with their heads or shake their heads. The rhythm can make them feel happy or relieve unpleasant emotions. Most children are clear headed, appear happy or show dissatisfaction and unhappiness when these phenomena occur, and have no other abnormal behaviors, There will be no danger. With the growth of age, the baby gradually enters the rebellious period from the age of one and a half to two, and these performances will be used as a weapon for the baby to play.
Babies slap their heads and hit objects with their heads when they are happy and depressed. Parents are more worried about whether they will break the baby's little head or cause problems. In fact, parents should not worry too much. Babies are just physical expressions of emotional state, and generally do not hurt or bump themselves. If parents strongly stop them, Babies will be happy and depressed under the negative reinforcement effect. "People come crazy" and "playing goofy" will use these expressions to attract parents' attention or achieve some goals.
If the child does not want to continue to perform and pat his/her head, parents need to learn to ignore and shift. By letting the child ask for trouble or distract the baby's attention, this kind of performance of the child will gradually reduce and disappear.
Babies with "headache, dizziness and distension" may pat their heads
When a baby suffers from upper respiratory tract infection and other diseases, he or she will feel headache, distension, dizziness and other feelings like adults. The child can not express his or her subjective feelings of the disease in words, but only through body language. Patping his or her head with his or her hands and hitting objects with his or her head are often the symptoms of headache and distension. If the baby is found to have fever or a slight cough, vomiting Diarrhea may be head discomfort caused by upper respiratory tract infection or diarrhea disease; If the baby subsequently becomes drowsy, irritable, screaming, dazed eyes, front fontanel protuberance, etc., it is necessary to be careful of the possibility of meningitis.
During the period of upper respiratory tract infection and diarrhea, parents should pay attention to home care. When the air quality is good, they should open windows at home for ventilation, take outdoor air baths, feed more water, sweat and dry in time, eat light and easy to digest, reduce gastrointestinal burden, and monitor temperature for pediatric follow-up. If the baby slaps his head with meningitis, don't treat him lightly. He needs to see a doctor in time and treat him as instructed.
Pat the head, grab the ear, shake the head, and be careful of ear diseases
The baby's head tapping, head shaking and ear scratching may be caused by swelling or dermatitis on the head and face, eczema and dermatitis on the outer ear, and middle ear diseases, which may cause local swelling, itching, pain, etc. Parents can check whether the head skin is normal, whether there is local redness and swelling with pus spots, whether there is abnormal secretion in the ear canal, whether there is odor, whether there is eczema, etc.
The eczema of scalp, ear canal and auricle mostly shows local redness, swelling and exudation. The rash at the junction of earlobe and cheek face and the skin behind the ear is easy to fester, and the baby's small ears smell foul; Some babies show peeling, dryness and desquamation of head, face and auricle skin. Parents need to find out the allergic factors that may cause eczema (such as muggy fever, diet allergy of nursing mothers, milk protein allergy, complementary food allergy, etc.
The baby's middle ear eustachian tube is wider and shorter than that of adults. After frequent vomiting, choking, swimming choking, and upper respiratory tract infection, milk, swimming pool water, and other secretions are easily poured from the throat and nose through the eustachian tube into the baby's middle ear cavity, causing middle ear disease. When the upper respiratory tract infection occurs, the nasal mucosa swells, causing nasal congestion. The swelling of the eustachian tube mucosa will cause negative pressure in the middle ear The sense of stuffiness in the ear and repeated middle ear inflammation will lead to conductive hearing impairment.
Therefore, after the baby has a cold, vomits milk frequently, chokes on milk, or chokes on water while swimming, he/she may pat his/her head, scratch his/her head, or shake his/her head frequently. Parents can take the baby to the ENT department of the children's specialized hospital to see if the baby has middle ear inflammation or eustachian tube dysfunction, and treat him/her as soon as possible.
Baby "pat your head" parents don't panic! Observation and judgment are needed to determine whether to seek medical advice and appropriate family intervention through accompanying performance.
Wang Weijie/attending doctor of Maternal and Child Health Department of Shanghai First Maternal and Infant Health Hospital
