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the biting stage

amyfeliceamyfelice
in Northern California Babies

Has arrived. It seems to be focused only on me right now and only when I'm doing something she doesn't like. When I was changing her diaper, she tried really hard to bite me but couldn't quite reach and she tried again when I was buttoning her jacket this morning. 

I know I should do a time out, but it seems tough when you are mid-diaper change or on a family zoo outing. Sigh. Otherwise she has been responding great to 1-2-3 magic. I think it's time for "that's 3, take 2". I don't want her to start biting her friends!  

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Re: the biting stage

  • scrapmama2201scrapmama2201

    We were in the Mommy and Me Toddler class when Ty went through the biting stage. As a late talker, it was often done out of frustration: getting into carseat, someone taking a toy/hitting him, etc. The teacher gave me a couple suggestions that really helped:

    * for the carseat issue (which would likely work for diaper changes): have a special "car toy", something that can be placed in both hands and taken away, and give them to him immediately after opening the door. If he hits or bites, take the car toys away. I was shocked at how much easier something so simple made things. Granted, we still had some carseat battles but it helped immensely to have an instant consequence for the behavior.

    * for outings: the unwanted behavior typically happened during transitions. It was suggested to give a countdown and offer him a choice. Either let him determine how much longer we stay, knowing that he didn't have a real concept of time, no matter what number he gave, I determined the length of time. Or give him x number of turns, he can pick between 2 or 4.

    Little things seemed to really help. It's not a fun stage though!!

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  • amyfeliceamyfelice

    Thanks so much. I really appreciate the suggestions, especially the first one. I know she is frustrated like you said, and I dont' want to punish her for her emotions, but of course you can't just let it go. I did hear her saying "I don't bite" later in the day, so maybe just telling her will help too.

    She also gets a little upset with transitions but we have sort of worked that out for now although who knows, it may resurface.  

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  • lmvierralmvierra member
    We had a little bit of a biting stage with T (also mostly with me). I did two things that seemed to end it pretty quickly and we haven't really had any problems since. First, I'd put my index finger over his mouth (like you would when you're "shushing") and say "No bite". If he kept trying to bite, I would then take his hand and put it in front of his mouth and tell him that if he wanted to bite he could bite himself... It didn't take long before he stopped biting :-) Hope you get through it soon!
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