Biting toddler

[daisy99divine]

My friend's toddler is biting badly. No warning. Not related to frustration/ toy removal/ sharing or "usual" toddler flash points. Just seems to like taking a chunk out of friends. Other than avoid like the plague what can I do - to stop the behaviour and ensure my DC doesn't copy?!

[igivein]

It's a phase. My ds did it. One time he took a chunk out of a little boy at nursery who was about 6 months older than him. I felt really bad, it's a workplace nursery and i work with the little boy's dad. I apologised to the dad and he said don't worry - it's just karma, I wasn't entirely sure what he meant. Ds grew out of it after a few months. A couple of weeks ago one of the mums I know quite well said to me 'I'm really worried they're going to ask my ds to leave the nursery, he's started biting the other kids.' -It was my first ever 'I'm an experienced mum, I've heard it all before' moment!

[daisy99divine]

but what did you do to try and stop it while the phase was going on? I am sure the toddler won't be biting when he's 21, but in the meantime....?

[daisy99divine]

bump - I would love some advice!

[feetheart]

I followed my DS round like a shadow when he went through this stage and tried to divert every attempt to bite, usually by putting my hand between his mouth and his 'victim' and saying "no teeth/no biting" every single time. If I didn't manage to prevent him biting I would sit him down facing away from the fun, say "No biting" very clearly then make a HUGE fuss of the bitten child. Very time consuming but I think the message got through in the end, or he just moved on to another phase!

HTH