I accidentally bit my little girl

[Belle82]

I feel disgusted with myself.

We often play around with my little girl (2yr 8m), playfully ‘eat her’ Nibbling at her, always with lips over teeth (if that makes sense) so that I couldn’t hurt her.

Today we were messing around while she was looking at my phone and I accidentally bit her with my teeth, not hard put enough for her to say ouch. I don’t know what happened but I must’ve forgotten to put my lips over my teeth.

I feel hideous I hurt my little girl and I would never ever do that.

I’ve decided we won’t ever play that game anymore with the risk of forgetting and hurting her again.

I just hate myself for this. 😔

Sorry, not looking for sympathy, I just had to write this down somewhere, I’m far too embarrassed to tell my husband

Oops. Don't sweat it OP. She's not hurt. My kids love it when I pretend to eat them.

My baby loves when I pretend to nibble her hand. And when I use my teeth. I don’t put pressure though. She just likes to feel my teeth. She always laughs. You might have caught your dc off guard and that is why she said ouch. But if it makes you feel better don’t play the game if you are worried. Accidents can happen with dc. Hard not to feel bad. Even if it’s not your fault. Like I felt awful when my dd fell over when climbing the front brick wall (she was under my dh supervision). I was out. But really felt so bad when I got home and all worried etc. Took her straight to hospital. She had to get it glued shut the cut on her forehead. But thankfully it wasn’t too bad. And then there was the time my son got nipped by the puppy and had to go to hospital! Felt awful and so guilty etc. But now realise it was an accident of course. These things happen. And my ds is fine. Dog is no longer a pup and doesn’t nip. And ds LOVES the dog.

I did this once - didn’t hurt dd at all but the absolute look of shock on her face will never leave me!

It’s fine - teeth can hurt. She’ll understand this in context more and more as she gets older (if she remembers). Don’t be so hard on yourself

I did this once, my dc was waving their finger near my face, as they sometimes do, and I went to pretend to bite it, as I sometimes do, but i ended up biting their finger.

We laugh about it now.

It's not a big deal, it was an accident.

In the nicest possible way you are totally over-reacting

Nothing disgusting has happened, why would you stop playing the game? What you've described I would class as a funny anecdote for the future, haha DD, one day I acidentally bit you etc

Do you suffer with anxiety?

You are making a mountain out of a molehill as literally nothing happened. Calm down.

Don’t worry about it! Children do like to be ‘eaten’ for some reason. I think every parent in the world has banged, dropped, tripped etc their child at some point. And in return children have pulled things over into their parents head, spilled things on their parent, knocked over breakables... (or in DSs case, pulled a plate from on top of a dresser over - which landed on my foot and broke a toe as I shoved him out of the way as it was heading for his head).

Not a big deal at all. The only thing I would say is that I've had to stop nibbling DS (which is very hard!) because he was getting a bit bitey so I figured it was a little hypocritical to tell him off for something I was then doing to him!

You are being quite OTT about this OP, it's a non event, forget about it. I can understand feeling guilty if you actually really hurt her, I once hit my DD in the face with the cordless hoover (didn't realise she was standing right behind me) and it really hurt her and left a bruise, I felt absolutely awful. But this didn't hurt your DD, just an accident, nothing to worry about.

I think you should be way more worried about your very OTT reaction to this, then the actual event itself. 'Disgusted, hideous, hate, can't tell my husband' - jeez!

Seriously, things happen! Learn to differentiate between what is a big deal and what is just a silly accident. You're making your own life so difficult.

Didn't sound like you hurt her at all? Don't be hard on yourself.

My mum was once holding my baby when she was about 5 weeks old. It was cold out, my mum was shivering and tried to kiss baby's hand but properly bit her with her chattering teeth! 😬 Baby really cried, it must have hurt! But my mum was SO upset too. I was hormonal and annoyed with her but looking back it was accident, no harm done and quite funny now.

I did this once. DS playing at putting his finger to my lips and me pretending to bite it as he pulled it away.

Then he didn't pull it away and I actually bit it.

I felt awful alot longer than he did.

If your baby didn’t say ouch then it’s fine. It didn’t even register as shock let alone pain.

Seriously don’t worry.

If this is the worst you hurt her in your time parenting you’ll be fine. Seriously you are MASSIVELY. Overthinking it.

Thank you so much for all your replies.
I do suffer from quite a bit of anxiety and getting some help for it. But also going through ivf so pumped full of hormones. Please be gentle. X

You can give yourself permission to move from this
It was an accident and you will probably tread on her feet and knock her over and snap as she gets older
Please don’t worry, I do understand the anxiety though

I remember my mum used to nibble my niece's fingers and one time bit a little too hard. She screamed the house down. We still laugh about it (including my niece) to this day, 20 years later!
And about the time that my sister dropped a video on my niece's head... and the time my other niece ate cat poo. Neither of these incidents have cause long term trauma, just some funny anecdotes!

There is a trend on tiktok where people pretend to take a bite of their child to the sound of something like a bite being taken out of an apple, always makes me shudder 😂

@Belle82

Thank you so much for all your replies. I do suffer from quite a bit of anxiety and getting some help for it. But also going through ivf so pumped full of hormones. Please be gentle. X

Ok.

She said 'ouch' she didn't scream the house down in pain.

Don't stop playing a game she enjoys because of this incredibly tiny mis-nibble

Good luck with the IVF!

Ouch means 'that nipped', not mummy's
Going to have me for lunch.

You didn't even draw blood, let alone need a Dr/hospital.

It was a VERY MINOR 'ouch'

If that's the worst you ever hurt her, you'll be one in a million.

I've bitten both of mine, it's fine!

If she didn’t say ouch it didn’t even count as a proper bite! Don’t worry about it.

I once gave my dd a little bop on the bum with my foot to hurry her up whilst she was crawling and I was waiting to get through the doorway - completely knocked her off balance and she went over like a sack of spuds.

At least you didn’t boot your baby through the house!

Don't fret.

I've dropped DS when playing "drop the baby"(hold him in arms and pretend to drop him a few inches), bumped his head on ceiling when lifting in air, knocked him over onto concrete hen playing a bump into me game, he fell off the sofa when I was trying to push him over etc.

Never stopped playing this games though. (Intact I still try and push him over 😂)

What NotStayingIn said.

I bit my DD once in exactly the same way! But we made a joke about it and it became a fun 'in joke' between us - I think my DD was a little older and she put her finger in my mouth and I accidentally bit quite hard 😁
I joked that it takes the same amount of force to bite a finger than a carrot and then the joke began that she would pretend to put her finger in my mouth and I would shout 'carrots' - this was hilarious apparently