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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
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Biting Others

lv2bhapilv2bhapi member
in Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
Hi All, it's been a long time since I've posted on here, but I'm hoping for a little advice. 

My 19-month old son is biting other kids at daycare. He's done it several times, never breaking the skin. At first, I thought he did it because he was teething and trying to soothe himself. Well today, he bit another little kid and broke skin. Our babysitter said she heard them fighting over a toy, and then came around the corner to see DS latched on to the kid's arm. This leads me to believe it's not that he's teething and trying to soothe himself. We've tried secluding him from the other kids before, but not sure if that's the best approach.

DD is 4 and we didn't have this problem with her, so this is new territory for us. Have others had a young biter before? How did you handle?

Thanks in advance!
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Re: Biting Others

  • GreenMonkey1GreenMonkey1 member
    My son is 14-months and has bit me a few times, once because he was exploring and a couple times because he was mad I stopped him from playing with something.  Toddlers bite for a few reasons (teething, reaction, bored, exploring, frustration, etc.), it sounds like in the instance you described from DC your son bit because he was frustrated.  

    Your DC provider should hopefully be able to identify what triggers your son to bite and be able to redirect him if the situation presents itself.  I know my son is more likely to bite if he gets frustrated so I try to redirect when we need to move on rather than just move on.  He's too young to get why we cannot play still and he doesn't have the language yet to tell me he's mad.  I also tell him "no bite mommy" while looking him in the eyes. 

    Here is a good article from WebMd regarding toddler biting with suggestions to squash biting habits.  Our DC handed out materials about biting behaviors and what is done at the daycare + what we can do at home - https://www.kindercare.com/blog/tips-from-our-teachers-discipline-aggression-and-biting/.  Both my niece and nephew bit when they were kiddos, my sister made "bite" books for the kids with pictures of what they can bite (banana, pillow, etc.) and what they cannot bite (mommy, friends, self, etc.).  They read it twice a day and it helped a ton.


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  • lv2bhapilv2bhapi member
    Thank you both for the advice! 
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  • EMOmammaEMOmamma member
    My son was (still is sometimes) a serial biter.  It's tough.  DC needs to see if there is a trigger (certain toy, time, activity, etc) and try to prevent them from happening.  
    We also read some books "Teeth are not for biting" or something like that.  And there's a YoGabbaGabba video that's a song about Don't bite your friends that we watched.  
    Another thing that helped cut down on bites was teaching my son the phrase "I'm angry"  We'd have him say it or yell it when he was getting angry that way we knew to step in and it helped him communicate his feelings.  


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  • plus12012plus12012 member

    I used to be a DC teacher in a toddler room and biting is always part of life with that age group. I understand that biting is extremely difficult both for the parent of the biter and for the children being bit. I know this isn't a solution to your concerns with your little one but, for the kids in the room biting to them is no different from pushing, grabbing a toy, hitting etc. unfortnately it just leaves a mark that for us grown up people seems awful.

    For some kiddos biting is just a phase. They get frusturated, have a hard time expressing that in words and some children are more prone than others to react with their mouths instead of dealing with the frusturation in other ways.

    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

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