hitting and biting (long vent)

bellevuebride07

Leo has been hitting a lot.  We have recieved several notes from daycare letting us know he has been hitting his friends.  Today we got a note that says he bite another child .... twice!  We do not let him hit us or bite us.  We have been trying really hard not to react and to put him down and walk away when he hits us.  What else can we do?  He surely doesn't understand reason.  It is so hard to get these little notes from daycare, it breaks my heart.  Whenever I try to talk to them about it they seem very understanding and say it comes with the age.  I just feel like I need to take some sort of action when they send these notes home, I hate feeling helpless.

On another note DH met Leo's little girlfriend today.  He was checking Leo out and another mom approached him and said her daughter talks about Leo all the time and that they go down the slide together and he waits for her so they can climb together.  So cute, right?  Got me thinking though how this child was "telling" her mom about Leo.  Leo can say Ba and it means bath, ball, and banana and that is about it.  It blows my mind how much other kids his age are "talking."

Sorry this is so long....

Moesten

I think what you are doing is fine. I would be interested to hear how daycare responds when he hits or bites. Is their response consistent with what you guys do at home? There is nothing for you to do at home to address what he is doing at school since there is too much delay from when he does it to you addressing it. It wouldn't connect for him. He is too young for it to make sense, kwim? You guys just need to keep reinforcing that hitting and biting is not okay and removing him and/or yourselves from the situation. Some of it really is the age and it will pass as long as you guys stick with what you're doing. It's always disappointing and frustrating when you're kid is the one being "bad."  

Superchicy

We are struggling with this at home, DD stays with my mom when I work and I don't think my mom corrects it at her house which is another issue.  She hits us when she gets excited, and we are trying to fix it, but it is slow going.  She's bitten me twice pretty hard, but didn't understand what she's done.  Sorry I have no advice, but wanted you to know we're in the same boat.

AngRx

Yep--same thing sister! natalie hits when kids get too close to her face. She likes her own space I guess. She seems to be getting better as she gets better with communicating in other ways (words/sign). As for speaking we are with you there too. Goodness--she says mama, dada, baba, kittiekat (that is what she calls ALLL animals), and uh oh. She babbles and "talks" all the time but unrecognizable. She understands virtually most of what we say though. It's hard not to compare your kid to other kids but he will get there. 

Meg41208

I don't know what to say about the hitting and biting, except that it's normal toddler behavior and that they grow out of it...

As far as the talking goes, I think the mom might have been exaggerating a bit.  K has a good vocabulary for her age (almost 20 months) and she manages a few 2 word sentences a day ("daddy work" "good girl" "thank you" "more milk" etc) and she knows and can say the names of the kids in her class at daycare, but the most she does when it comes to telling me about her day is nod her head when I ask her questions and sometimes repeat words I say.  Some kids talk a lot at this age, but they're the exception, not the rule.