biting!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dmo]

i am a cm
i look after my next door neightbours 18mth old dd

she is a only child i have looked after her for about 12mths

she is a scracher and goes for other childrens faces/eyes

she has bite a couple of times in the past mostly when in the double pram on the other childs finger

on friday 2yr old child was sat colouring and i was sat next to table on the floor and 18mth old went up to the table and i thought ahh bless she is going to cuddle 2yr old but NO she bite the 2yr old on the cheek and broke the skin

today 2yr old has come in with a scar!!!!!!!!!!!

what can i do????????????????

you need to be tough about it and make sure Mum and Dad are on board too. I had a little one that did the same, it was a nightmare, it felt insane at times, there would be no reason for it. Eventually it got to the point where my son was terrified and so he had to go elsewhere, we tried everything and nothing worked, when he went to nursery I think he improved because there wasnt one particular child to direct it at. They grow out of it obviously but its down to whether your others can deal with it until that time. If I had a biter again I would be a lot more hard about it. supernanny website has some good tips. Try not to react too wildly about it because they really dont understand what they are doing sometimes. My little one I looked after I sort of fely sorry for because he really didnt seem to 'get' that it was wrong and would get very upset afterwards. But to be honest I think Mum still has some problems with him now.

Biting is not always the malicious thing that we adults see it as.

Biting can occur when a child has a surge of emotion that they don't know what to do with, it can be out of love!!!! as contrary as that sounds. They also bite because they like the feel - rather like teething.

Nevertheless, it needs to be stopped as its not nice for the victim.

You and parents need to be working together on thsi one.

First of all is there any trigger/pattern to the biting - tiredness at certain times of day, jealousy etc - you said it looked like they were going to give someone a cuddle?????

Obviously you need to keep a very close eye on little dracula and be ready to intervene quickly. If the bite does happen - say a very firm controlled NO and make a HUGE MEGA fuss over the bitten - ensuring the LO knows that what they have done hurts. 'oh dear xx that hurts doesn;t it' biting hurts.

The LO is young and the reaction needs to be immediate and firm and simple.

try distraction techniques if you think the LO is going in for a chunk out of someone.

It does pass.

failing all that - teeth removal! lol (joke)

haha already said about tooth removel

was very firm and sat child out for 1.5 minutes while i cuddled bitten child

feel on edge now and will do tomorrow at toddler group but hey ho