Please help with biting!

[NoWave]

DS is almost 14 months. He is cutting incisors and molars, and I know he's in a great deal of pain.

He has started biting me. It started as a teething thing, but now he does it even when I offer him others things to bite.

It hurts a lot, and I really don't want to scare him by shouting out. But he sometimes draws blood.

He only does it to me.

At the moment I am putting him down/walking away, saying "don't bite mummy" very firmly, and ignoring him. But that just seems to stress him out, and I don't really want to do that. He gets very upset, crying and not aggressive, and seems sort of 'adrift'.

Offering him something else doesn't work. I'm an AP type, so any advice along those lines would be great.

What do I do? Any help at all? Is it just a phase?

He's biting hard enough to draw blood? How on earth are you not shouting out? If you don't show your DS that it hurts you how will he learn not to do it?
Try to spot the signs of when he is about to bite so you can stop him before he starts.
Otherwise I'd call out loudly "Ow! That hurts" and make him stop immediately. If that scares him and makes him cry that isn't a bad thing as he learns - biting Mummy makes me and Mummy upset. Tell him "We don't bite, once you've calmed down lets do..." He won't be upset for long if there's something fun about to start, but it may take a minute or so - think naughty step without the step.
DD1 was a biter of other children - dreadful! I'm sure both DDs bit me at some point, but never hard/long enough to draw blood as I'd call out immediately.

I've got a biter - DD's bitten me on/off since she was 1 and she is now 2. She has phases of doing it more and then will stop for ages and start again if something in her life changes (i.e. I recently had twins).

I've found now that I can spot a bite coming a mile off, so I gently hold her jaw so she can't make contact and say "no biting, it hurts' and we move on to doing something else. If I stay sitting in the same place she'd just go for it again as she often does it when she's tired/bored/hungry. I will then sort out which one of the trinity is bothering her.

If, however, she makes contact and bites I try and remain calm, say "biting hurts mummy/your brother/best friend and makes me sad" and remove her to somewhere else and try and distract her.

Having said all that - she's still biting! But not as much and for shorter and shorter periods and the rare times she does do it she doesn't put much effort into it. It's a horrible phase as it makes you feel really awful and you know the worst thing you can do is to push them away, but not doing that requires a tower of strength and patience. I think you sound lovely and are doing all the right things!

Thanks, both.

I think moving on to something else very quickly is what I'm not doing, so I'll start that.

Mum of a biter signing in. I too can see he's about to do it. I think if you get warning its easier to do a pre emptive strike (whether it be moving away/distracting/shouting out)

I too have a biter! 13m But I always manage to stop her before she does it. I holding her away and saying "no biting mummy" most of the time she just smiles other times she'll Have a strop. But there's no way I'm gonna let her bite me, I made that mistake when trying to count her teeth!