Bitting

I started a little "saying" with my girls.....

In this house we don't bite eachother
we dont hit eachother
we dont pull hair....
hands to ourselves

We put our hands by our sides. They repeat it after me. They are both 3, but I started doing it when my youngest was 2. They understand and they know what it means. When they have done one of those, we say it then we hug and apologize for being bad and breaking the rule.

Good luck

I think it is a learned behavior from day care centers, I worked for a few crappy centers. They learn biting, hitting and snatching as a way to deal with other kids. The problem is in some day care centers is that you have 1 teacher to a lot of kids, so say the kids are 1 then it is 1 teacher to 5 kids, then at 2 it is 1 teacher to 7 kids, then at 3 it is 1 teacher to 10 kids. The kids basically are being raised in a heard. They don't get much 1 on1 attention unless they do something wrong so they learn to do these things to keep a toy the want to play with or to protect themselves.

I think you should seriously look into he center your child is at, look at how many kids are left with 1 adult and drop in unannounced at different times of the day. If you find everything is fine then chances are it is an age things and she will grow out of it. If not then you may want to find a center where they have less kids to 1 person.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

When my kids were young and bit I would tell them "no biting" while tapping their lips with my finger. I wasn't sure they knew what I was saying so I thought tapping their lips would help them make the connection.

Does the biting occur in certain situations or in response to something? It may help if you practice feeling words with your daughter to help her talk about how she is feeling instead of biting. I noticed with my kids once they started talking they did less hitting, biting, etc.

What does the daycare staff do when she bites? They will play a role in helping your daughter change this behavior. You giving her a timeout hours after she has bitten another child at daycare most likely isn't going to change that behavior. How they handle it will have an impact since it is "in the moment".

does she speak enough words? tell her to use words instead. kids tend to bite more when they can't verbalize what they feeling and what they want.

They in daycare also need to be consistent in discipline and remove her from the situation and the other kids. When my son was 2 he had a boy in preschool who bit and eventually he was kicked out.

Hi Z.,
My daughter went through a biting phase(maybe around 18 months) when she was teething. She would bite daddy especially, but also bit me. Our strong yelps, and stern reprimand eventually did the trick. She also started to bit her own arm occasionally,but also was short lived. I would distract her or ignore it, as the attention seemed to make it worse.

It is hard for you because she is biting other children. I think your child needs to realise the cause and effect of her actions and also being praised when her behavior warrants it as well.These things are phases, so don't take it too much to heart. Have you asked the daycare staff what they have seen work? The nurse at the pediatrician's office is a great resource.Experience is priceless. The Everything you need to know about toddlers text is a helpful resource.
Good luck!
L.

I don't think this is an uncommon occurance with a 2 year old. When they get frustrated, mad, sad etc and can't verbally express their feelings, they show how they feel - with their teeth! I think that you should talk with her daycare teachers and the director and come up with a plan as a group so everyone is handling the situation that same way, wether at home or daycare. This way daycare will also know that you are attentitive to the problem and are trying to work on it. Then you can speak with daycare to see how it is working. My daughter has bitten a couple of times and she does it when she is frustrated. I tell her no very sternly as soon as she bites and also put her in time out. She hasn't bitten recently that I am aware of so I think that has worked for her. Good Luck.