Biting out of spite...Please help!

BabyNewbury2012

First of all my daughter is almost 18 months old and has never bitten anyone. However at daycare in the last 3 months she has been bitten 4 times! (The child has been removed from her class thankfully). So yesterday she was at something she shouldn't of been and I went over took her by the hand to guide her away from it and she bit my hand, I just said no that is not nice (loudly ) and she Laughed! So I took her by the hand again and she bit me again! And laughed again! I know she was doing this because she was mad not getting her own way. This is the second episode of this in 2 weeks now. How do I deal with this? I don't want her to think its ok to be mean when she don't get her own way. Would love advice on how to handle this. I don't know how to explain it is not ok without her laughing and thinking it is funny.

vamomtobe

I'd love advice, too.  My LO is the same age, and has been giving me light bites, only on my forearms, for the last couple of weeks.  Just me.  Over the last week, he's bitten me pretty hard a few times.  When I try to do a firm "no!" or "no, we do not bite!", he laughs, and if I point with my finger, he actually laughs and points HIS finger!  Honestly, it's kind of cute, but I'm good at keeping up the not-amused front.  I've tried explaining why we don't want to hurt others.  It almost seems silly at such a young age to explain the repercussions of their actions, but they also understand an amazing amount so I figured I'd give it a shot.  Didn't work for me, either! Yesterday when my DH picked him up from daycare, they told us he bit multiple kids in the class.  So now it's not just me and I want to get him past this phase as quickly as possible.  

  

Anyone have success with just ignoring the biting and redirecting so LO doesn't get an apparently amusing reaction??

blu-eyedwife

Biting is fairly common at this age - and why I don't get worked up about my son getting bit at daycare.  It's a way of expressing themselves when they don't have the ability to communicate they way they want.

Now, obviously it's an undesirable way of expressing themselves, but keep in the back of your mind that it's not going to be a permanent thing.  Until then, it's all about repetition.  Each time she does it, remind her that we don't bite. You're going to have to do this over and over.  And remove yourself from the situation.  "It hurts mommy when you bite, so I'm not going to hold you/play with you/whatever, until you can sit/play/whatever nicely."

 My son's not a biter, but he gets bitten fairly often because a couple of his friends are biters.  With him, I work on "what are our teeth for?"  Initially when I did this I was expecting "eating" as a response, but instead he flashed me the biggest, cheesiest smile he could, so now we go over that "teeth are for smiling, not biting."

chefnicole22

My DD is 13 months and she bites out of anger, but so far she's only bitten me. I just say "no" and walk away from her for a little bit. She's starting to not bite as much, so I hope it's actually working.