Difficult 13 month old?

[BubblesPip]

I'm a single Mum, with no real support from daughters father and I'm starting to feel at a loss with her behaviour. She bites regularly during a meltdown, ie I'll take something away from her that she shouldn't have, or move her away from something and she'll have a tantrum and run at me and bite me, or bite my arm (leaving bite marks and bruises). I initially ignored this, but it didn't get better, so thought that saying a firm 'no' would help. But When I'm firm with her she laughs! And then carries on, in fact me being firm seems to escalate her behaviour further. Earlier today she kept wanting to chase my dog, which I obviously don't allow. Each time I'd be firm with her she'd smile/laugh and then she'd chase that much more, or start grabbing at the dog. What do I do if being firm doesn't work? I do often redirect her/distract, but surely she won't learn if I can never set boundaries? I'm starting to worry I've got a terror on my hands

She's too little to know if she's going to be a terror. I would keep at your not reacting behaviour- i.e., if she chases the dog, tell her not to, without too much fuss, redirect her, then if it continues, move her away from the dog. This may be picking her up and taking her into a different room, or removing the dog. I'd then ignore for max 1 min. Then straight into something you can praise her for. I guess she isn't really differentiating positive and negative attention- she just wants attention. The more attention you give to a situation, the more of a game it is. If yo can close down the game, and make something else more inviting, you might win!!
Good luck!

Ahh thank you! I didn't consider that she may just be enjoying any attention, even negative. That certainly makes it easier to understand where she's coming from 👍🏻 Lots of patience and redirection it is.

My DD had a biting phase at this age. We found a quick no, followed by a cheery positive instruction about what you would like her to do worked wonders. We also had a great book called 'teeth are no for biting'.