19 MO DS Biting

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

Help please!

My 19 month old DS has bitten me quite a few times. Usually leaves a mark. I have been dealing with it by firmly telling him "no" and walking away from him. Sometimes he is upset that I've walked away (which presumably is a good thing!), but more often than not he just wanders off and does his own thing.

Unfortunately he has now started biting at nursery  we had our second incident yesterday. He has also bitten my friend's little girl. I have a suspicion it's frustration.

He started nursery at 10MO last November. He was the only "baby" by quite a long way. The nursery is set up with a "baby" room (0-2 children), a "toddler" room (2-3) and a preschool room (3+). The pre-school room is designed to get them ready for school, so is completely separate. The baby and toddler rooms are separate, but with an adjoining door, and they mix together for activities quite often. When he was the only baby, he spent a lot of time in the toddler room and I think became used to interacting with older children and got used to how they play. Now there are younger children his key worker has to care for a younger child too, which means that DS sometimes has to stay in the baby room more often. I think it's just unfortunate that they have a big glut of babies, a big glut of older toddlers, and DS is just stuck in the middle. I have told nursery I wouldnt object to him moving up to the toddler room early where the children can defend themselves but of course this will upset their ratios.

Any ideas what to do? At the moment nursery are telling him a firm "No  it's not nice to bite", and then taking the victim away to be fussed.

Alternatively, anybody know where I can get a muzzle for him?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

How is his language? Sometimes this can be an issue.

Have the nursery said if there is a trigger, like hunger or tiredness?

[CultureSucksDownWords]

There's not a huge amount you can do really, it's usually a phase and will stop (sooner or later). Nursery are taking the right approach which you can also use if he bites at home.

I found that reading a book with my DS called "Teeth are not for biting" was really helpful. It has advice for parents as well. I found that repeating the phrases from it a lot during days at home with me helped to reinforce the concepts. My DS has not had a biting incidence for a good long while now (fingers crossed it will stay that way).

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

jilted his language is about average I think. Unfortunately he is with much younger children a lot of the time, and I don't think he understands why they don't understand him! He is definitely worse when tired.

culture will look for that book thank you.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

If he is worse when tired, is he getting enough sleep at night and naps I. The day?

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

Don't get me started on sleep! He slept through for the first time 4 months ago, only been reliably sleeping through for about 6 weeks. He's usually asleep by 8pm and awake by 5, it's 50/50 whether or not he goes back to sleep. He naps 1-3 usually.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Five till one is a long time for someone so small. Could the nursery bring it forward?

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

He's only in nursery until 12.30 as I only work mornings. They do try and get him to nap but he fights it. He's only just learned to self settle at night and this hasn't carried through to daytime naps unfortunately.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

That's a shame. Could you work on the early waking instead? Have a read of this and this on biting