18 months and biting

[Jennijagodic]

I need some help - my 18 month old son has been biting other children. The nursery he goes to says he is not biting other kids there however I have just left the indoor playground after he bit 3 other children on purpose. I tried to stop him but I wasn't quick enough.

He seems to be biting when he wants the other kids to move or when the other kids want to play on what he is playing on (he bit one kid when he wanted to play on the slide he was sitting on and another when he wanted to drive the little tykes car the other kid was already in).

I was mortified as he rarely bites us at home and I don't know how to stop him from doing this as its my first baby and I don't have a large support group. There is so much conflicting advice out there - one says ignore him when he bites (which is difficult when its other kids) and others say to bite him back (which I'm sure someone at playground will call the social services if i did that).

Please help!

Does he bite you?

It is one thing that I think needs nipping in the bud as quickly as possible before it becomes habit (and yes, I have seen this at a nursery we had one of our children attend).

My daughter bit my finger on purpose and hard when she was 2 years old, so I picked up her hand and bit her back. Don't get me wrong, I didn't do it very hard but enough to shock her and she never ever did it again. I wanted her to realise it 'hurt' when she did it, as I didn't feel she would have understood if I had tried to explain.