My kid is a biter...but only at DC

Polofsky

Apparently DS has started biting this week. 4 times according to the teacher. He doesn't bite at home, he will occassionally hit or push DD...but even that behavior is somewhat rare...he's not an aggressive kid at home. The teacher kind of says it like I should be working on this...but I don't know what to do about it if he doesn't do it with me. He is able to show remorse about it, when she told me it happened again on Friday, I asked him if he bit someone today and he hung his head and started crying. So I told him I don't want him to do that to anyone else, it's not nice and it hurts people. But didn't really know what else to do about it after that. I just told her to keep doing what they are doing and I will keep an eye out for that behavior at home and address it if it happens with me.

 

wheelsonthebus

I have a home daycare and biting spreads like a virus. I agree with you, there isn't much that can be done at home if he isn't actually doing it there. Has your DS been bitten recently? I had a biter start at my daycare and within a week, everyone was biting everyone. The only thing you can do it to remind your son to stay calm and use words. The daycare teacher should be watching your son and trying to remind him to use words before a bite can occur. I'm sure you son was either bitten or saw someone bite and is now doing the same. It's totally normal.

Polofsky

Yep, DS and DD are both in the same class and have both been bitten multiple times. I'm hoping it passes. Some of the trouble is that he isn't very verbal, they are both in speech therapy. DD will let you have it with her words AND her jibberish when she's upset with you...DS is much quieter though and he is much further behind with his expressive language so he doesn't have the words to express himself when he's mad or when someone has done something to upset him.

UsedToBeGoldie

home and school/daycare are 2 very different environments - so you and the teacher need to figure out why he's biting- what are his triggers, and try to avoid that.

the teacher needs to discuss what her plan is for him to avoid him biting... and you need to continue to enforce it at home- talking about it - letting him know how sad it makes you to hear he bit someone, etc. there are some cute books on "no biting", too.

i would talk to her and find out what she does to avoid it at school - are there certain children he tends to only bite? can she keep him away from them as much as possible? Does he bite when he's tired, hungry, etc? try to avoid frustrating situations for him during those times, etc.  Part of the job as a preK/daycare teacher is to figure these things out and work on it. (i used to teach)