Oh dear Lord, please tell me my 14 month old DS is not going to turn into an axe swinging mass murderer?
DH picked him up from nursery today... he had to sign three accident forms because of three separate incidents of DS biting another child. Apparently, the nursery staff didn't think his behaviour was malicious, but nevertheless... he just walked up to other kids and bit them. He is also a bit prone to shuffling others. He is a big boy, probably the biggest (although not the oldest) in his nursery group. They move up to the next group at about 18 months.
He has had an episode of frequent biting before (at about 10 months), but he stopped that after a few weeks. At that time, he only bit his main carer.
He does bite occasionally at home. Mostly, he actually does it when he cuddles up to me, but sometimes when he is upset.
Any ideas of what causes this? My three theories are
- teething: he bit at nursery one day last week when he had two teeth coming through at the same time
- tiredness: the same day last week, he had had a very interrupted night and was tired. Today, I went Swimming with him in the morning before nursery - so probably tired again
- boredom / lack of stimulation: is it time for him to move up to the next nursery Group? Because of the weather, they also cannot go out with the kids that frequently now, and as he has just started walking, I think he is going a bit stir-crazy indoors occasionally
The odd Thing is that he has days of biting quite a lot and then nothing for days / weeks.
Any ideas of how to stop this? Whenever it happens at home, my husband and I go down to his Level and say where sternly "No, X, we don't bite". He does seem to understand, as he genuinely looks ashamed!!!
Any other ideas???
I just hope he stops this... I have nightmares at the moment of DS being thrown out of nursery... but maybe I'm overthinking this...