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Biting?

ladipaleladipale member
in Northern California Babies

Ellie is turning into a biter.. not while BFing, but while playing. I know she isn't trying to hurt me, but it hurts! She'll crawl over and put her mouth on my leg or arm and bite down. I know she has more teeth coming, so maybe teething is part of it. But she goes to daycare and I don't want her to be the baby that bites all the other kids....

How do I change the behavior? Is she too young? I always say "ouch" and move her away from me.

**** TW - kids and loss mentioned ****
~~ married 8.11.07
~~ DD1 1.16.11 ~~ DD2 1.3.14 ~~
~~ BFP3 12.22.15 MMC 2.29.16 @ 13 weeks ~~
~~ 2 D&Cs (3.1.16 and 3.10.16) for MMC
~~ BFP4 10.27.16  MMC 1.23.17 @ 16 weeks ~~ D&E 1.26.17 ~~
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Re: Biting?

  • green*eyesgreen*eyes
    E was a major biter for a looong time.  We tried to keep teethers around (some the freezable kind) and offer him those whenever he got "chewy."  Sounds like you're doing the right thing.  I would say "no biting" and/or "biting hurts" and move away from him.  Fortunately, E never bit anyone but us!  We spoke with a child development specialist who suggested getting him to do some kind of physical activity - running around, chasing, even jumping in the jumper at your E's age - to get out some of that excess energy.
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  • lmvierralmvierra member
    When T started to bite (around 14 months, I think) , the director of the child care at our church suggested that you put you finger over her mouth (like you would when "shushing") and say "No bite" when you see them start to go for it. That worked most of the time unless he got really frustrated, in which case I stuck his hand in front of his mouth and that did the trick. He stopped trying to bite a couple weeks later and we haven't had any problems since... Good luck!
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  • soon2Bkranzsoon2Bkranz member
    Jonathan is starting to do it again but he is way older so he gets punished. But at your daughters age I just reacted naturally. I screamed OUCH said NO and walked away from him which always upset him. He luckily learned quickly
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  • jsugrinjsugrin member

    Most child development experts will tell you to not even say ouch, that any reaction at that age makes kids happy since their entire life is learning about cause and effect and they thrive on that understanding that they have the power to get an effect. Since kids want attention you are supposed to simply deny them the attention, so every time she bites you walk away from her, or stand up and turn your back on her.  Andrew started biting around 6 months and I'd stand up, turn my back to him and count to 10 in my head and as he got older up to 30.  If your holding her and she does it just put her down and walk away from her.

    One thing we had success with, but it was when he was quite a bit older, was providing a special "biting" object.  In our case it was a stuffed frog and if he bit or I could see he was winding up( in our case he'd get overstimulated and bite) I'd give him the frog and tell him to bite the frog instead.

    I'd say the most important thing you can do is choose a way to deal with and do it every.single.time it happens.

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