Friend 2 yr old has biten my 2 yr DS

[austinsmam]

This isnt the first time it has happened, and he has apparently biten others at his nursery. I told him off but his own Mother, does not seem to know what to do.

My sympathies to your ds for being bitten, but my sympathies too, to your friend as the mother of a biter. Biting is a stage which many children go through. I would hope that the nursery are working with his mum to use some shared strategies when he bites.

There are a number of threads on here about biting - I think that parents often say, very clearly. "No biting", and remove the biter from the situation. I also think (as the mother of a child who was once bitten), that it's really important for the mother of the biter to apologise to the mother of the bitten child. I know that it wasn't their fault at all, but somehow, it diffuses the situation.

My child was once bitten by the child of another mumsnetter at a meet up. The mum handled it brilliantly by removing him, saying no, and then making sure my dd was ok, and apologising and talking to me and my dd about it.

of course she apologised, but she doesnt appear to be doing to much to stopping him continuing to bite.

I'm not sure theres much she can do to stop him doing it again.
She can only react when he does it and apologise to the other person.
Its a phase, like tantrums, you deal with them as best you can, but you cant stop them until the phase is over!

It's normal, some are biters some are not, it's a phase, it will pass.

My DD has been bitten on several occassions but there is nothing the mother could do except apologise, it is a phase they will grow out of it and the mother was mortified.

What would you like her to do?

Lots of toddlers bite its not malicious just experimental.At 3 my dd said,'I wanted to see what he felt like in my teeth!'Fortunately it was very shortlived maybe because ds said ,'he felt like this' and bit her back........

My DS used to bite at nursery. He has grown out of it now.

What do you expect your friend to do? I'd be delighted to know how she should handle it.

when he bites it is always in anger. He drew blood from my DS. Maybe i would his Mother to explain firmly that it is not acceptable behaviour at the very least.

I'm sorry for your son, but place yourself in the other mum's position. Your son might not have any nasty habits at this stage, but how do you know that he won't develop any. I'm sure his mum is doing her best to discipline her son. You can explain all you like to a child not to do something, but they don't have to listen! I feel for her - she must feel embarrassed.

Well if she doesn't then you should

aww sorry about your boy...hope it wasn't too bad a bite

Oh it's horrible to have a biter...feel very sorry for your friend.
Much better to be the mother of the child being bitten though rather than the mother of the biter himself.

Don't be to upset about it. Your son will bite aswell, at least once. It's normal. Telling him off's probably not the way to go. He doesn't know it's wrong. he's just being 2!

I posted obn another thread last week about biting.
dd1 never did it.
dd2 would if she thought she would get away with it and started at 11mths. I flicked her chin when she did it, it stopped without hurting her or biting back (which is a bad example to set). That with a firm 'No biting and 'the look' stopped it at 12.5mths.
However, like many others have said, lots do and lots don't. There but for the grace of God really because it is not necessarily learned iyswim. Mine biting was down to teething, had I let it continue it may have carried on.
The other way is time out for biting and remove from social circle.