Biting

Ugh!!!!!! biting has to be the worst toddler behavior ever. Parents of the child who was bitten can get pretty darn mad, and parents of the bitter can get so discouraged, not to mention daycare providers. It can be a very stressful situation. Notice how only the adults were mentioned, the kids are usually pretty forgiving. It is not a life altering experience so lets all just calm down and try to get through this.

Biting is a pretty common behavior for a toddler, reason being that they cannot verbalize very well yet, and they are easily frustrated. Children usually grow out of this stage before their third birthday, when they have learned to talk pretty well, and have developed self control. Of course this brings me to my next point, children will learn better self control if their care givers have it. Please for the love of Pete, DO NOT BITE THEM BACK!!!!!!, this only teaches them that the way to handle a problem is through aggression, and really?, does it make any sense at all? NO BITING, as your chomping down on them. Lets access the situation here, when does the biting occur? is it only at daycare? is it towards you, or a sibling?or do you have a biting machine? Most of the time day care is the most popular spot for biting to start, that is simply because if your child is in a room with a group of children the same age there is going to be a lot of frustration between them because its hard for them to communicate with each other. This doesn't mean that you have chosen the wrong day care or you need to pull them out. It just means you need to be aware that most likely at some point either your child will bite or will be bit. Believe it or not child Care teachers prevent 9 out of 10 bites. If you child has a real problem with biting, meaning it is everyday, sometimes a few times a day, you may want to consider either shortening their hours or finding a daycare that has mixed age groups, and a smaller Teacher/ Child ratio. If your child is bit by another child, do not overact, the way you handle an injury has alot to do with the way the your child reacts to an injury. If your child trips, and you overreact then your going to have a child that overreacts, and knows how to turn the waterworks on to get attention, which can become a nuisance to be perfectly blunt, nobody wants to deal with a cry baby.So instead if your child trips, you should just say" oh,oh, are you okay?" Alright, back to biting, lets not overreact if your child was bitten, chances are they have already forgotten about it, if you are just picking them up from daycare. But if it happens in front of you, pick them up, make sure you clean the bite area with antibacterial soap, and hold an ice pack on the area. The child that bit should be briefly and firmly scolded, if the are 15months or older a time out can be used. "NO BITING", do not carry on, we all know that strangely kids like all attention negative or positive, so you want the attention to be the hurt child and not the one who caused the hurt. If you child is the one who bit, same thing, even more importantly, give your attention to the other child. A very firm and brief NO!!! We do not bite!. Other parents are going to be upset with you so you need to be sympathetic and honest that your having a tough time with this and are really sorry. Most importantly you need to be consistent, that's the key with any decipline and believe me this can be very exhausting, but every, EVERY time that he/ she bites you need to address it. And don't be a slacker, do not leave your child at daycare when you do not need to while they are going through the biting stage, and try to make arrangements to have them picked up early or take a few days off. Hopefully this helps but if I forgot something or you have any questions please let me know.