anyone's twins bite each other (only) getting close to age 3?(&other beh. issues)

groovygrl

Sorry this got so long....I'm getting pretty frustrated w/ this situation... DD used to bite her brother when they'd fight over a toy or something and it was a bit of a problem for a short period, then tapered off in the last couple months, still happens here & there but fingers crossed, she is moving past it...unfortunately, her brother, who has never bitten her before, has bitten her several times in recent weeks, usually when they're at daycare and both trying to go up the slide or something along those lines and he bit another boy in the class 2 weeks ago on the playground. They'll be 3 this summer & I'm starting to get concerned about this behavior.

Complicating it is that DS seems to have a lot of negative emotions also. He is always telling us that he is mad or sad about something, his 'emotional' art pieces at work were both about being 'sad' or 'mad' (his sister's were 'happy' and 'excited') and he frequently says things when he is upset/frustrated like "I want to hit you, I want to slap your hand, I want to push you down", etc. He doesnt typically act very aggressive and never really acts on what he says. On one hand, I am glad he can express those feelings, but on the other I feel like he has these feelings more than he should. 

To top it off today, after he was in thinking time or whatever at DC after biting his sister, his teacher went over to talk to him & tell him he could get  up and he spit in her face. I don't even know why he would think to do that, no one in our house does that & I can't think of anything on tv or anywhere he would have seen that behavior. I was pretty mortified.

Just as a side note w/ the biting, we do the 'no biting, biting hurts, teeth are for eating' spiel, we give attention to the bitten child if we are around when it happens, it results in an automatic time out and also results in the biter not getting books at bedtime, b/c they love their bedtime books. However, that has been having less effect lately so today I told DS he wasn't getting books at bedtime & also couldn't play w/ his trains the rest of today/tonight (which did upset him so maybe that one will help).

So, any advice (other than 123 magic, we use it to the best of our ability) or anyone else have twins who bit mostly each other & still up to age 3?

akaMrsL

I could use some advice too :-( One DD is biting more and more these days.

DarthNBJenni

Natalie was a biter when she was younger, and we did the whole redirect, pay attention to the other child, "don't bite your friends" thing. A few months after she turned 3, she started to bite again. Like, huge bloody teeth imprint that would probably get CPS called on me for abusing my child bite. Time outs & taking away toys weren't working, so I finally popped her on her butt - and she hasn't bit since.