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2 year old daughter biting herself during tantrums....

4 replies

sweetiepie1979 · 06/09/2013 01:26

My daughter has just turned 2 and I am 35 weeks pregnant. The tantrums have upped in the last 2 months since she turned 2 infact and she is trying to bite a lot. If I am holding her and she is not getting her own way. Then she will try to bite me but if I pull away and not let her she will bite her own hand, what I'm reading says give her something for distraction but she would be likely to fire this at me when she is in this mindset so that dosent make any sense to me. It's awful to see her doing it and now it is upsetting me. So far I've said that's silly don't do that it hurts you and just brushed it off or walked away I've thought it best not to make a big deal incase it becomes attention seeking. She goes to nursery 2 days a week there is a lot of biting going on there too but she always seems to be on the receiving end of it rather than doing the biting I think. Nursery handle it with the usual removing the victim making sure they are alright asking biter to apologise etc. She is quite a spritely lively and loving little girl but when she turns she really turns and I feel awful like its my fault..... Her language is a bit slower than her peers so that I know will be frustrating her and as her SAL develops I suspect the biting will not be as natural a reaction to her. She use to bite her dad a lot during physical play that was excitement and I think that has got better because she knows daddy stops playing if she does bite him. Really I am most uncomfortable with her biting herself anyone any experience or advice?

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sweetiepie1979 · 06/09/2013 11:44

Oh no is mine the only one?

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philbee · 06/09/2013 18:48

DD1 used to do this, biting her arm when anxious or frustrated, but more like gnawing rather than biting during tantrum. I posted about it and others said their children did it too and grew out of it, as DD did. It is horrible to see though. I tried to get her to hit a cushion, shout etc. when angry but I think 2 might be too young for this to work. Can you talk to her about it when she's calm and suggest something else to bite on?

Beamur · 06/09/2013 18:53

A friend of mine had a little boy who used to bang his head against the floor or the wall when he had a tantrum. She found it incredibly upsetting, but he did grow out of it as he got older, he's a very sweet and affectionate boy (now a teen!) but he was quite a highly strung and emotional child.
She was advised by her HV to ignore it, but I'm not sure how useful that advice really was.

sweetiepie1979 · 06/09/2013 23:00

Ok thanks for that, that's helped a bit thank you

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