One Year Old Is Biting!!!

Oh my gosh, my daugther went through the same thing. She was bit by another kid during playtime and at the babysitter's, one of the other kids leaned over and bit her on the lip out of jealousy. She then thought this was a normal thing to do and started biting other kids. Some times out of frustration she would bite her own hands. I bought the fisher price plastic stacking donuts that comes in colors. I took one of them and tied a long string ti dangle the donut. I also took the doughnut to school. Whenever she was caught biting or trying to bite, the teachers worked with me and had her sit in timeout biting on the doughnut. It took 2 months and stopped biting.

Hi C...honestly the biting thing is actually pretty normal. It seems every kid we knew around my daughters age (around 14-16 months at the time) began biting around the same time..so you can imagine the fun at play dates..LOL. The only thing you can do is just let him know over and over that biting is not acceptable. I tried everything, I would tap my daughters lips with my fingers and tell her not to bite and it didnt work, time outs, etc..nothing worked. My daughter actually stopped when she bit herself once. She realized how much it hurt and she didnt do it again for quite some time. She just turned two and recently started doing it again...This time she bit her little friend and her little friend turned around and bit her back and once again she's stopped. I wish you luck and patience..this will pass.

Hi, C.. There's no ONE remedy to stop biting. You have to find the trigger: curiosity, teething, hunger, affection and aggression are the main ones. You have to be able to recognize when the biting is about to occur. Your childcare provider should be writing down the incident times and circumstances, because there IS a pattern. After 2-3 instances, they should be able to recognize the trigger. The teachers/providers should NOT be taking a punitive approach at his age. If they don't understand this, find another provider; it's not worth trying to educate them. You don't want this behavior to turn into an aggressive act. If you think it is, you'll need to address whatever is making him feel anxious, nervous, afraid and/or insecure.

The most interesting research I've read about toddler biting, is when giving them a crunchy snack mid-morning cut the biting instances dramatically.

Let me know if you need more specific info. Toddlers are my ABSOLUTE favorite little creatures!

J. Smithson
Loving Hands Learn 'n' Play
http://www.lhlearnandplay.com

Teething! It is very common for a baby of this age to begin biting because of new teeth.
They get 20 teeth by 2
Provide hard things for them to chew on.
A cold wash cloth works wonders.
Health food store has organic teething cookies you can put in refrigerator to get cold.
Know it is very common at this age.
If you stick your finger in their mouth you'll feel why.
You can say hear bite on this an provide something they can bite on.
Good Luck.