I have a wonderful 2 1/2 year old daughter. She can be so sweet & is the joy of my life. However, recently she has started biting me & her dad for no reason. She will be giving me a hug, and bite my shoulder, or walk up to me, grab my hand or foot, and bite that. We have no clue why she has started doing this, she is not teething right now. We've tried everything, giving her time-outs, telling her biting hurts, etc. Anyone have any advice on this? I don't want it to get any worse! Thanks.....
Thanks to everyone for your advice! She is doing much better with biting now, we have just consistently been using the same discipline technique, and it now seems to be working. Although we are still trying to teach her that hurting people is not nice.......... :o) Now I completely understand what 'terrible twos' means.
My son started biting recently and I just tapped his cheek and told him NO BITING! It's really worked. I know a lot of people who don't believe in spanking, but a tap on the cheek gets their attention and they don't like it! It helped with him and he quit biting after a few taps.
Hope this helps...S.
My daughter went through this stage also, and although some people may think the worst of me, I had to bite her little hand back once, not hard enought to even leave a mark, but to simply show her how it felt. She said "Ouch, mommy. That hurt!" There were no tears and then I explained to her that it does hurt when you bite people and you can't do that, it isn't nice is it? She seemed to understand because we haven't had a problem since...
I know it may sound cruel when you say it out loud, but bite her back! Not too hard, but with enough pressure to let her know what it feels like: Painful! If and when she can relate pain to what she is doing, she'll stop. My daughter, who is now 7, used to do that at 2 1/2 yrs. also...but, i just bit her back a few times, and she got the hint! Luckily, my 3 year old has never tried to bite! :) Good luck, and do give it a try, it really works!
I don't personally know, because our little one has not gone through this, but I have read on it. At that age they are figuring out cause and effect. When I do this, this happens. It's simply a way of seeing how you react. The most you can do is stop her, tell her no, and tell her not to, because it hurts mommy and daddy and she would never want to hurt mommy and daddy would she. Be persistent with however you decide to approach it. Maybe show her things that are okay for her to bite on if she needs to get it out of her system.
I hope this at least helps a little.
Hi J..
I used to work with two year olds in a daycare and had a little girl that did the exact same thing. Her dad said that he would threaten to bite her back at home and it helped. However, having a degree in child development I don't suggest threatening to bite your child back. It sounds as if you are doing the right thing. You may also want to try rewarding her at the end of the day if she doesn't bite that day. Or combine the reward at the end of the day with a form of punishment for biting. The most important thing to remember is what ever consequence you decide on you absolutely must use it every time she bites. If you don't do it every single time then she won't understand that she is being punished for biting. Sorry I couldn't be more help than that. Good luck!
