Thursday, April 26, 2007

How to handle a biting toddler?

One of my clients recently asked how to handle a biting toddler and I thought I would post this so other parents can share their insight.

My advise was to be consistent, take a definitive tone of voice that is different from your play voice or daily speaking tone, and never positively acknowledge the behavior. Explain that it does not feel good and give a short but necessary time out by the same piece of furniture each time.

What are your thoughts?

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suspect you won't like my answer, but if you slightly bite back, the child will discover what it's doing and stop, if it expects to get paid back fairly!

Anonymous said...

make them bite down on a teething ring for a minute, if you make them keep biting and biting they hate it and will eventually get the idea that it is going to happen every time they bite and will stop, daycare experience. lol

Anonymous said...

I've heard they do this because they're looking for attention. Not sure if its true or not. The last thing you do is bite them back as some may suggest. A 14 mo old is wise enough to understand you when you tell him/her "No, that's very bad" and be consistent and very firm about it.

Source(s):

I had two 14 mo old children of my own that bit at least one time each.

Anonymous said...

My son is 15 months and bites the s**t out of me. I do though bite him back sometimes, not enough to leave a mark but enough so he will know that it hurts. I figured that maybe one day he'll learn. Actually he hasn't done it in the last couple of days. So maybe it worked.

Anonymous said...

I am willing to bet that the 14 moth old does not know he is hurting you. I have worked with kids and had one bite me real hard. I pretended and was very dramatic on how bad it hurt. I pretty much threw a fake hissy crying fit. I then ( still being kinda dramatic) told the child how bad it hurt and put the child in time out. After doing it a few times, he quit biting me. I know sometimes people say to do it back, And i fully agree but only after you exhausted all the possibilities. Sometime i feel that the lesson may be payback and that should be avoided As well.

Source(s):

Working with children for at least 12 years

Anonymous said...

When my brother was little he went through a biting stage and broke threw my skin. So my mother asked the doctor what to do and he said to bit him back (not enough to hurt him just enough to know that it is not nice and it hurts). Have them use their best judgment and be nice!!!!
It worked pretty well.

Anonymous said...

I'm very old school. I bit my son back and he never did it again. It is very typical for kids that age to bite. There really isn't a whole lot you can do. They generally grow out of it. Also, it depends on how the child responds to discipline: do time outs work? Scolding? Make sure the child knows they did something wrong and it will not be tolerated. Children can get kicked out of day care for biting. It is not OK to bite.

Anonymous said...

Lol, please don't bite them back. were not vampires! They do this because of an emotional mix up. They really don;t understand why they do it, but it's usually out of frustration. I would simply explain that biting it not the way to solve the problem. If they steam up more let them cool down in a time out. They have to learn how to control this emotion.

Anonymous said...

Bite em back

Anonymous said...

When they bite you, make a big deal about how much it hurt.

Babysitter said...

I'm just a babysitter, and the 1 yr old girl is biting. Everyone is saying, "bite them back", but I don't want to do that if the mom's not okay with it. I'm going to try making a big deal about it when they bite and make sure they knew it hurt.

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