DS1 started biting when he was about 18 mths old. He bit us, and he bit other children at nursery. DS2 (now 2.6) started getting the brunt of it when he started crawling, and between the ages 1 and 2 he was bitten by DS1 pretty much every time we turned our backs. He stopped biting at nursery and biting us. For the past year DS1 has been a lot better - he can sometimes go a couple of days without biting, and we can leave the two of them to play (depending on DS1's mood) much more often. However, he still does it, and whatever we come up with as a consequence of biting does not work. We have done the usual naughty step (no effect), sending him to bed early (no effect), no sweeties (no effect), no swimming etc. (no effect). We resorted to a smacked bottom for a short time but it just made us feel very bad and had no effect. We are currently sending him to his room for half an hour/an hour every time he does it. The other day he was up there half the day, still bit him about four times that day. He has no particular favourite toys so confiscation does not work. We have had lots of success with reward charts to reward positive behaviour but find that they don't work with discouraging bad.
I had a look at the "Three Day Nanny" book the other day and she says that punishments/consequences have no effect unless the child is obviously upset by them. I have never found a consequence that has that effect. He gets a bit cross and bored in his room, but not upset, and gives no sign that he's not willing to "pay the price" for biting!!
There are no obviously triggers for biting - he bit him just now the second they got down from the lunch table. Just went over to him and bit him on the hand, and when I sent him upstairs he just trotted up there and I can now hear him singing to himself.
Any ideas, because it's getting silly now. Poor DS2 has bite marks on him the whole time.
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.
Behaviour/development
4.3 year old DS biting his brother
21 replies
KKKKaty · 22/01/2014 12:51
OP posts:
CraftyBuddhist ·
22/01/2014 13:46
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.