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Behaviour/development

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Biting 2year old

3 replies

ctrlaltdel · 21/11/2013 21:07

My DS is 2.6 and goes to nursery nearly full time. In the last month, he has bitten three different children (most recently breaking the skin on the arm). I am really upset that he is hurting other children.

DH usually picks him up from nursery and it seems the biting has occurred either when fighting over toys or once when provoked. The nursery have a good policy in place about children who bite. We have no other behavioural concerns about him. He is a boisterous 2 year old who gets cross when he doesn't get his own way.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?. We do tell him biting is bad but given his age, it seems difficult to know what else we can do to stop the biting?

OP posts:
OwlCat · 22/11/2013 19:29

He sounds similar to my DS from around his second birthday onwards. It used to really upset me, both that he was hurting other children and that other parents would dislike him because of it, and I felt uncomfortable taking him anywhere with other small children. I tried different strategies to try to stop it but to be honest, the only thing that has really made a difference is him getting older. He's almost 3 now and it does seemed to have stopped.

ctrlaltdel · 22/11/2013 22:25

Thank you for the reply. I do find it really upsetting - I watch him very closely when I'm with him around other children and so far he has not bitten anyone (and I would act on it straight away if he even came close to hurting another child)

It's only when he's at nursery and I feel very powerless to do anything to stop him there as I don't find out about it until the evening after it happened and by that point it's difficult to know how to do anything more as he's too young to understand why he is being disciplined for something he can't clearly remember happening :( I really hope he grows out of it soon.

OP posts:
lj123 · 22/11/2013 23:22

Hi, I work in a nursery an have to say that between 2-3 years a lot of children do pick up the biting habit.
The nursery can look into this more by observing why the biting is happening etc, timings can also be a trigger especially if it's before lunch/nap times as they are hungry and tired.
I'm sure he will grow out if it, using the mouth is a huge part of development and biting an be anything from hunger - frustration.
Some children who struggle with using words to express feeling which is common for 2 year olds will use biting as an expression.

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