Help with biting

twocents6708

A friend of mine is trying to utilize some positive discipline with her two year old daughter. She asked me for advice on biting as her DD has been struggling with it for almost a year now. She has been biting peers at daycare. At first, she wasn't as verbal so it was hard to reason with her. She is very intelligent and can communicate well with words now. I advised my friend to help DD identify the feeling so maybe she can say when she is mad or frustrated rather than biting on impulse but while she has the words, not sure if this is developmentally appropriate for her age. Any ideas on how to combat this biting issue?

bugsmami

We did (do) a lot of finding appropriate things to bite (teething toy, etc.). My DS1 tends to need a lot of oral stimulation, so I try to make sure he's got lots of different textures (especially frozen fruit/popsicles, chewy fruit leather) and flavors (sour, etc) each day. If she notices her DD chewing on stuff like straws, then she may need more oral sensory stuff... which will help with the biting that's not related to frustration. If she's only biting when she's frustrated, then id'ing her feelings and getting her something appropriate to bite will help. She doesn't have impulse control, so she will need a lot of close supervision (which isn't great for a daycare situation). I could gently lift up DS's chin with my index finger if he was headed in to bite me, and that would stop him while I would say "biting hurts. I will not let you hurt me. If you need to bite, bite this.".

A lot of times, now DS will say "But, I want to bite you (liddle brudder)" when he is frustrated. I just have to keep reminding him that it hurts and I won't let him hurt me/DS2. He bites so much less now, so I don't know if he's growing out of that phase or most of it was from the big change of getting a little brother. Have there big changes in your friend's DD's life?

twocents6708

She mostly bites kids at daycare an it seems to be very impulsive, she cries afterwards but seems to do it out of frustration. The problem is that my friend works at the daycare so she wonders if DD is jealous about sharing her mom with the other kids.