Why does my baby hit himself??

Question

He is 2 1/2 years old, he keeps hitting and throwing himself all around and has given himself giant bruises. I dont think this is normal, this is my fourth boy none of the others had done anything like this. It has gotten so bad in the past few days that we have had to have up to three people hold him down in fear that he would injure himself, today we took him outside to play in his toy pool, he was throwing himself on the concrete and hitting himself. He not only hits himself with his hands he uses toy cars, bottles, whatever he can get his hands on. Also when trying to get him in bead he throws his blanket on the floor then i get it then he throws it again and gets in a tempurtantrem. The past three nights we have either had to scratch his back until he falls asleep or just let himself cry himself to sleep. I just want this to stop so bad. If anyone knows what is wrong, if its a phase, or a disease pleeeease tell me.

Answer 1

Your child could just be wanting some serious attention from you!! But like the others said take him to your pediatriction to find out whats really wrong.

Answer 2

Take him to your pediatrician and describe the behavior to him.  He may want to refer you to a specialist.  He may be autistic.

Answer 3

Sounds bad.

There is a single condition that I know that manifests in this way, and it's Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. It should be easily detectable - in affected persons, urine has a high level of uric acid. It's a metabolic disease: treatment is symptomatic.

Checking Wikipedia for reference, I found this:

"However, self-injurious behaviors occur in other conditions, including nonspecific mental retardation, autism, Rett syndrome, Cornelia de Lange syndrome, Tourette syndrome, familial dysautonomia, choreoacanthocytosis, sensory neuropathy including hereditary sensory neuropathy type 1, and several psychiatric conditions. Of these, only individuals with Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, de Lange syndrome, and familial dysautonomia recurrently display loss of tissue as a consequence. Biting the fingers and lips is a definitive feature of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome; in other syndromes associated with self-injury, the behaviors usually consist of head banging and nonspecific self-mutilation, but not biting of the cheeks, lips and fingers. Lesch-Nyhan syndrome ought to be clearly considered only when self-injurious behavior takes place in conjunction with hyperuricemia and neurological dysfunction."

I gave you a star in case other peple may know what ails him. Good luck.

Answer 4

This isn't necessarily a disease, but it is something you should check with your pediatrician about. Sometimes when a child has been through a trauma, they will hurt themselves to express emotions in feelings because they cannot yet express them in words.

Has anything especially stressful happened to your family? Is there a possibility someone could be abusing this child?