Continuous Biting

[Marie12]

My DS who is 16 months old has been at nursery since mid June (about 4 months) and in that time he has been bitten at least 10 times. I am getting exasperated with the nursery's blase attitude towards it. Initially they said they were increasing the ratio of staff to children to increase supervision, but it hasn't made any difference obviously!

I appreciate it is common in this age group and I should expect it if I send him to nursery but does anyone think the frequency of it is a bit much? Don't know if I am being unreasonable?

On at least 3 occasions I have found the bite marks when bathing him and the nursery weren't even aware he had been bitten. When I brought it up the next day they just said that as my DS hadn't shown any distress, they didn't know it had happened and just shrug it off. He is 16 months old and can't talk much so surely they should be observing more closely, especially when they have serial biters in the room?

Any comments appreciated!

is it the same child each time ?

I had this experience a few months ago when it seemed my ds (now 19 months) was getting bitten most days and it finished me off when one day I picked him up and he had a massive bite mark on his face.
The nursery were very aware of who it was and kept a closer eye when these two were together, it was the same child (who is the same age as my ds) who was biting him.
All of a sudden this stopped and very rarely is he now getting bitten.
I'm afraid this is the norm for the age group but make your feelings known to the nursery about it as it is distressing for us parents. Find out if they know who is the biter (although they can't tell you who it is) and ask them to keep a closer eye when the two are playing together.
I hope it gets better for you.

I don't think that you're being unreasonable. I think that the nursery should be supervising known 'biters' more closely. My DS is 18 months old and has gone to nursery 2 days a week since he was 6 months old. A month ago he bit another child. The nursery told me when I picked him up and explained that it wasn't a bad bite but that they had not seen this behaviour from him before (but that it was very common for this age group). They also explained that all staff know which children bite and ensure that these children are supervised very closely to ensure that others are not harmed. DS has not bitten again but it was reassuring to know that procedures are in place to manage this problem.

Thanks - they can't tell me who the biter is, nor have they said if it is the same child each time.

I had it from both sides about 2 months ago I'm manager of the nursery and it was my ds who was getting bit at least once a day by the same little girl I tried every strategy to stop it even went in that room myself and constantly shaddowed the girl but it all happened so fast!!
It stopped as quickly as it started and health visitor even suggested it was a sign of affection.

Thanks chlochlo, I guess that puts another perspective on it!