biting

[SJ mom]

Has anyone successfully stopped their child from biting. My DS does this from time to time and I always feel terrible. tried time out but..

[lizajane]

gotta be quick, but will try more later...

heap on the postive attention

try to teach DC ways to communicate frustration (share! help! etc!)
signing is good if DC is too young to speak. or if old enough to speak, try teaching one word- like above

do NOT make a big deal out of the biting- try "no bite" in a firm tone and put DC in time out place but do not heap on negative attention

do NOT bite back

if all else fails, give DC an appropriate thing to bite, like a teething ring or small stuffed toy. (experts told me to do that- it sounded wonky to me, but like i said, it came from the experts.)

[KrisM]

I've been trying "no biting, only kisses" and it seems to have slowed the biting. He only bites me and DH though, not other kids.

[kedss]

If he bites at home, can you tell when he's about to bite? If you can try to redirect him beofre he bites, give him a teething toy to bite on or just find some way to distract him. My DS also bites at home, usually when he's unable to communicate or is frustrated. It is getting better, though.

HTH

[californiagirl]

Who does he bite and why?

[SJ mom]

He bites only at daycare. And bites me only when he is hungry...we are try9ing snacks.

They tried a time out and he cried so much he threw up. Oh the joys of toddler-hood....

[californiagirl]

If he bites at daycare but not at home, there is not a lot you can do about it. They need to fix it (and, IMHO, time-out is not an appropriate answer -- they need to figure out when he bites and come up with a plan to address that).

As for biting at home, you can do "You may not bite me. Biting hurts. If you are hungry, you may..." (fill in the blank as appropriate depending on how verbal he is, whether he signs, what you can stand, etc.) The goal is to be firm, to physically prevent him from continuing to bite you, and to provide another way of achieving his goal.

Are you sure he's hungry and not just really wanting to chew on something? A chewy toy might help, a teether he can carry around all the time and bite whenever he wants to bite.