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Biting. Oh the shark bite has such teeth dear . . .

canales13canales13 member
in Attachment Parenting
Hi, I realize this is far from the first biting post but I'm just going to post it anyway and ask for more ideas. My 10.5 month old bites everything. Necks, shoulders, nipples, hands and pinches.  The pinching I can stand but the biting has got to end.  From 8.5 months onward he would bite around twice a day and then last weekend it began to be every nursing.  In his defense he got 6 teeth in the last 2 months with all four top teeth coming in at the same time and really swollen gums. In my defense, my whole chest is black and blue and I get stressed every time we begin to nurse.  I've tried various forms of a nursing necklace and he either breaks them or is totally uninterested. I have of course tried saying "no, no biting mama", facing him away from me, making a big deal and yelling, not making a big deal and not yelling (2 months gives you quite awhile to try out different things). I've tried ending nursing sessions right as he's done (really this only prompts creativity in the biting as he then started biting at random times) and I've tried watching to see when he pulls his tongue back from his teeth in preparation to bite, which only seems to make me tense. I've threatened to wean him 3 times over the last 2 days (which much like the phrase "no, no bite mama" he totally doesn't understand) but i'm not going to do that as this is not how I want to end nursing. Ideas? Sorry to go on for so long but we're at our wits end here (he bites my husband too). 
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Re: Biting. Oh the shark bite has such teeth dear . . .

  • jsugrinjsugrin member

    My son was a severe biter like that and it's hard, oh so hard.  For us, and I had no idea at that age, but the larger issue was he's a sensory seeker and really was unable to control his biting so most of our approachs to disciple didn't really matter. For the nursing, I would immediately say "nursing (or whatever you call it) is done" then put him down and walk away.  Give him 30 sec - a min at this point before you even consider nursing him again and if you do give him a 2nd chance and he bites again then he's done and that's it until it's time to eat again.  Or if you really are interested/willing ect to wean you can do the put him down thing and after a bit offer him a bottle, then not offer the breast again until the next regular nursing session.

    Biting at random times (our son was most likely to bite when we were playing hard and he got overwhelmed.  He got so excited that he didn't know how to deal with it and that was his reaction) we would put him down and turn our back on him for 10 seconds.  I would count down and eventually we lengthened it to 30 seconds and then as he was old enough, actual time outs.

    The best things you can do is give him another outlet.  We gave him a little stuffed frog and every single time he bite or he seemed to be ready to bite we handed it to him and told him to bite it.  We'd show him how to bite it and make it funny, like really biting it hard.  They make chewie tubes you can give kids too and some kids respond really well to that, we never did it.  We also found that giving him a bagel helped a lot too.

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  • rosiemommarosiemomma member

    https://www.handinhandparenting.org/news/13/64/Biting-Pushing-Pulling-Hair-Helping-Children-with-Aggression

    https://www.naomialdort.com/articles11.html

     https://www.askdrsears.com/topics/discipline-behavior/bothersome-behaviors/biting-and-hitting-16-ways-stop-it

    hope these help! 


    image

    Little Rose is 2 1/2.
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  • canales13canales13 member

    Thanks so much for the suggestions!  You know I, as a last ditch effort, bit his teething ring last night and he found it the funniest thing ever and bit the other side of it.  I bet it could function much like the frog, or the rabbit he has with nipple-like ears that he loves to bite.  Excellent suggestions!

    Also the articles were really interesting.   He doesn't go to daycare but we are in the midst of moving and our entire house is in boxes.  My husband and I are certainly feeling a bit stressed and I wouldn't wonder that he too is.

    Thanks again! 

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