Biting - Chico,CA

Lemon juice, lime juice, or vinager in the mouth. Not a lot, but he needs to know he will get it everytime he bites. My doctor told us about the lemon/lime juice, but my girls liked it so we tried vinager. After about 3 or 4 times they stopped biting.
Good Luck to you!

It is a stage the all go through and it's the same whether it's a boy or a girl. I know this sounds harsh, but bite him back when he bites you. It will hurt his feelings as well as hurt him but then you can explain to him how it makes him feel and if he does it to someone else you can tell him that's how it hurts others. It may take a couple times but it works.

my father-in-law bit his kids back when they bit him. i thought this was crazy. one day i was sick of my 1 yr old son biting me so i bit him back, REALLY gently but it totally shook him and he never bit me again. i know, crazy.i felt bad after but he stopped. my daughter did this for a while too, but only after going to a new school and getting bit by another. i never bit her back (i did that trick on kid #2) she was older, and just explained how it hurt etc. she stopped. it's a phase. good luck.

I worked in infant toddler centers with children 6 months to 3 years. For these younger children, especially those who might have some awareness of pain in their mouths because of teeth, we gave them frozen "teethers" to hold in their mouths and to bite on and told them, "These are for biting on, we don't bite on people. It hurts people"

I do not recommend biting back especially if it is not right at the moment. Sometimes the bitten child will bite back, but this is rare. Often the children will avoid being close to a child who is apt to bite. Sometimes it appears to become a habit for no apparent reason and totally without warning.

I wonder how verbal your four year old is. And other ways he uses his mouth and teeth. It seemed to me that sometimes this is what certain children go through just before they are able to quickly and clearly express some kind of frustration or strong feeling verbally so they just sum it up with a clenching of teeth on or at the person who is handiest.

I think a four year old should be able to become empathetic and not want to hurt others or make them not like him. I probably talked too much with my children, but I still advise communicating with him about this especially if it goes on for a long time with no improvement.

Could he be worried or angry at you for abandoning him all day long? Has something happened at home or at day care unrelated to the children he bites? Does he bite certain children or just whoever is handy? Have the teachers noticed what happened just before the biting?

Good luck with this It can just be a stage and be over quickly without ever knowing why, or it can be indicative of something you have to address in other ways. I have to admit that the youngest of my five children did bite people including me for a short while. I thought in his case that it was because he was a very quick and physically active child who couldn't get his words out as fast as he wanted. One time he bit me while hugging me as though he just loved me so much he wanted to take a bite out of me. He was not angry, but was being affectionate.

Blessings on you and your son. Hope this can help a bit

N.

This may seem unconventional, but have you ever tried showing him that biting hurts? As a former preschool teacher, I started realizing that most children just plain don't understand that the act of biting actually hurts until they experience it themselves. Of course, I never actually bite my students, but many parents have told me that they stopped their children from biting by biting them back so the child actually understands that it hurts.

Personally I followed this advice with my daughter when she started biting others and it worked like a charm. After she bite me, I bite her back (only hard enough to make them realize that it hurts) and she hasn't done it since!

It's a phase that they go through sometimes.
My niece used to bite all the time... including her siblings and sometimes us.
Her mother took her to see a shrink because the school forced her to... nothing is wrong with her. Biting is a way to express and get attention. BUT you do have to be really firm about making him understand it is not ok. After a while of being strict with her and taking her back to school and making her apologize to all the friends she bit in front of everyone she stopped.
S

Ever think of biting him? I'm by no means breaking the skin, just enough pressure to get your son's attention. He's four and old enough to know when he's doing something to hurt another human. dog or cat.

If you do bite him, make sure he is reminded of the kids he's bitten and why they cried. (Example: "When you bite ADAM at school today/yesterday, etc. did ADAM cry"?

You'll probably see a lot controversy over this matter: Hopefully you will not be one of mothers who simply says: "Honey, it's not right when you hit your baby brother with a hammer"? NO, you pull your little guy up to you and, "TELL IT LIKE IT IS"!

Blessings.......