To think these women were overreacting

[LittleTurtle]

Yesterday Nanny went to the playground with DC (boys aged 4.5 and 2.5). The boys were arguing over a toy as always, when DS2 started biting DS1. Some women were at the park with their kids and they told nanny that what DS2 was doing was dangerous and that the mouth being full of bacteria he could make another child sick with that someone could sue us for that. Nanny was scared and alarmed by all this talk, as apparently they just went on and on. But DS2 never went anywhere near their kids.

DC are prone to squabbling and shoving, but the biting is new, he did yesterday morning and I was rather stern with him as punishment. We most certainly do not condone this behavior and I told nanny to put him in a corner and he must know he cannot play with the other kids if he does it. A sort of time out / naughty corner for 3 minutes as she usually punishes him for unacceptable behavior.

But these women talking about lawsuits etc. I just told nanny they must be freaked by all the talk of the dog biting several people in the news lately, but DS is not a dog and cannot be put down for biting. If both kids are healthy, I do not see the other child dying or going in a coma or having long term effects because of this. Though still you never know and it's a bad behavior no doubt. But I think they were overreacting. Also he did not do this to their kids.

I do want to nip it in the bud though, the biting business.

is Nanny your mum or your MIL?

Have you actually Googled the infections that can be caused from a human bite if it breaks the skin? It is actually worse, infection-wise, than a dog bite.

When DS1 was bitten at school, by a 4yo, and it broke his skin, he had to have a tetanus injection as well as an antibiotic taken orally as he is allergic to the antibiotic in the cream.

It's really germy, I'm afraid. The women were wrong to deal with it the way they did, especially as none of THEIR DC were bitten, but I can see their point a little, though they dealt with it wrongly.

Or nanny, as in childminder?

They are correct, if it breaks the skin and is not cleaned, human bites can get very badly infected, and yes they can actually cause death.
Toddlers do bite sometimes, the child which is biting needs to be closely supervised to try to stop it happening, he will grow out of it eventually I you keep reinforcing its not acceptable and keep supervising. As for legal action, I can't imagine any uk court would entertain such nonsense!

Would your 2 year old sue your 4 year old for biting, do you think?

YANBU

YANBU

Some children go through a biting phase and as long as you deal with it appropriately everything will be ok. Yes, bites could lead to an infection, but so could lots of other things.

These women were BU. Do they not realise that it's actually very common for small children to go through a bit of a biting phase? Or maybe all the children they know are perfect

They are correct, a TA I worked with became very ill after being bitten by a pupil.

However, the women were BU, as none of their children were bitten, it was none of their business.

Did these women expect you to sue yourself?
TBH though, you werent there are you sure 'nanny' (sorry not sure if its the nanny, or nanny as in grandma) is not over reacting slightly.

"I do want to nip it in the bud though, the biting business"

Maybe "Nanny" didnt bother to try nipping it in the bud and that is why the other women commented on it.

The nanny said she did reprimand him with a stern voice not to do it, just like she would for other naughty behavior. I believe her, cause she usually will react when they do something, especially as naughty as this.

Later in the day, I got him alone in a room and went down to his level and told him, with a serious face not to bite others. Telling him it's not nice and it hurts. I kept asking if he understood, he seemed reproachful and said yes. I think he understood because when I said, if he does it again would he like me to then tell his brother to bite him back, he said no - I would not really, just wanted to check he was not just saying yes to everything I was saying.

YANBU the ladies at the park were overreacting. You won't be suing yourself over your son biting his brother.
However human bites are very nasty if they break the skin.
I had a biter, he started around 14 months and finally grew out of it, but I had to monitor him carefully with other kids till he finally got the message not to bite. Hopefully your little one will stop as quickly as he started.

A Nanny is Employed to look after children/child at childs house.

An Ofsted Registered Childminder looks after children in Her/His own home and is Self Employed.

HTH

Yanbu whatever next.

They were being unreasonable. A lot of children go through the biting stage.

You were unreasonable to refer to the nanny as 'Nanny' though