Please help if you can. I have an eleven month old who will soon be one (about two weeks from now). She is a really fun child, good natured, funny and gentle. The only problem I have is that she has started biting. She doesn't bite other children, just me. Occasionly my husband. It has gotten so bad now that wehn she comes to me, I push her away. I don't know if she is going to bite!
I have tried everything I could think of. Here are some things I treid, talking in an angry voice, telling her it hurts, showing her the bite marks, putting her on a pillow away from everyone. (she thinks this is funny), trying to show her kissing, giving her something to bite.
My mother told me to bite her back, but I can't do that due to an operation I had that deadened some of the nerves on th e roof of my mouth, so I can't judge how hard I bite, so my mother said to use a switch on my daoughter's legs when she bites. I don't want to use corpal punihment if at all possible.
I have bruises on my thighs, bite marks on my hands, knees, inner thigh, breast, shoulder, arms and face. What else can I do?
She may be doing it because she's looking for some relief for teething. My daughter did the same thing about that age. I would just pull her back tell her no, and set her down on the floor. Maybe you can try offering her teethers or other toys she can chew on.
Hello D., I understand what you are going through. My son bit when he was baby too. They don't understand that they are hurting you and don't really mean too, and they are too young to comprehend any sort of punishment (it would not have the desired effect).
I know it is hard. I had bruises too! Definately say "no biting" when the bite. What we did - We would say no biting and put him down on the floor. Sometimes, I would cover his nose so that he would release the bite ... I don't think that really helped much though. The only thing I think that really works is just to be persistent ... with the "no's" and putting her down.
I hope she stops soon!!
Take care, D..
I thought this might help some:
http://www.drgreene.com/21_574.html
My thoughts are, if she is still in a crib, to maybe time her out there for 5 minutes and ignore any screaming, after a bite.
If nothing else works, then I would resort to giving her a strong pinch after she bites and calmly tell her that's how it feels. I don't like it, but you can't continue to be bitten and bruised all over your body. I truly think she doesn't understand how it feels. It may sound awful, but I have seen kids that quit biting after one bite back.
I think it may be more important to resolve this with a tiny bit of physical pain on her part, than to have to push her away because you fear she will bite you. The lack of physical closeness to you will be more damaging than a pinch or two.
My son just turned 2 and he still bits on and off when he is teething. The ped said that the biting pressure can help them take the hurt off the teeth. BUt we still even now tell him no and it is not nice to bit. He has been bitten several times and unfortunately that has slowed hi biting others and he bits on his lamb or some teething toys.
Hope this helps
K. P
if you bite her back you're basically showing her that it's ok to do. i agree that it may be teething, above all try to remember it is most likely a phase that will pass.
we usually say no, as calmly as possible (my son often would get a kick out of big reactions), put him down and walk away. then, we offer something ok to chew on that might help teeth feel better, and we often ask, "do your teeth hurt? here, you can bite on this."
