2 Year Old Just Suspended from Crèche- Help!

[TrixIrl]

So DD who is 2 years and ,4 months has just been suspended from creche for the next 3 weeks due to biting.

It's been an ongoing but intermittent problem for the last few months, nearly always completely unprovoked,out of the blue etc. She doesn't bite at home so finding hard to see how we're going to help modify this behaviour from here!

Now crèche are waiving fees and doing their best to be supportive but I'm at a loss to see what we can do to fix this. Her speech is quite delayed (a hangover from covid I believe) but she can generally make herself understood. Crèche are seeing this as an opportunity to break the cycle but any advice from the MN hivemind would be very gratefully received!!!!

Can you look at another childcare setting? At mine we would be doing 1-1 with the biter and we wouldn’t put them into time out. We would also keep a diary of all bites including what was happening just before to try and spot any type of pattern. It’s a shame that it sounds so unpredictable but I don’t think suspending her is helpful.

Not sure if your DD will be old enough for this, as my DS was closer to 3 when we had issues with biting, but we did a lot of dinosaur play. So acting out the t-rex biting the other dinos, then telling it not to, talked about how it made the other dinosaurs sad, giving t-rex toy chew toys, talking to t-rex about how it felt when it bit (with silly dono voices) so maby t-rex would say he was frustrated then DD could help teach the t-rex what to do instead.

I’m an educational psychologist and I work with early years children sometimes. I would try and work out why she is biting - could you do a bit of an ABC chart? An ABC chart is about recording the antecedents, what led up to the incident, when it happened, time of day, environment etc. Then the behaviour - who to, how long, how she felt. And the consequence of that behaviour - not necessarily the consequence nursery put in place but what happened directly after. Eg it could be that she bites because she’s overwhelmed in a busy place and when she bites she’s taken to a quiet room which she prefers, that’s just an example but it shows how an ABC chart can help spot patterns. I’d ask for a meeting with nursery to discuss the past few incidents.

I’d also find a behaviour to teach her instead - buy some chewlry that she can wear round her neck and bite instead. It could be a sensory need at her age, and when we tell her not to bite, we need to give her an alternative to do instead. Does she bite at home or just at nursery? Could you ask to come into nursery with her for an hour and encourage her to use the chewlry if she appears frustrated etc?

I’d also look at using visuals with her for ‘no biting’ and ‘bite chewlry’ and get nursery staff to have this on a lanyard etc so they can show it to her. I’d also get her some emotion cards that she can bring to you to show how she is feeling, where she hasn’t got the words to express herself. To start this off, have a few at home and when she is upset, show the sad card etc. Name the emotion for her and show her the card, to help her make that link. This will help if it’s frustration/not able to express herself. A common reason for biting is when a child is doing something that frustrates another child in some way, such as playing with a toy, or in a space they want to be in, and the child works out if they bite, the child moves away feom it. See if you can work out why she is biting, and put in ways to help her deal with those situations in another way. Could you try teaching her some baby sign to aid her communication? It won’t reduce her development of language, in fact it actually helps.

There’s some good speech and language resources here:

www.leedscommunityhealthcare.nhs.uk/our-services-a-z/speech-and-language-therapy2/speech-and-language-therapy-toolkit/

www.hacw.nhs.uk/childrens-speech-and-language-resources/?fbclid=IwAR0IkVGNVbvYlgOFgc7eaX6YrjEHuz6hRwsqaGx1BW8a3BUl5yAG-fajDEs

1.2 year olds bite (not all but some with typical development do)
2.Do they receive funding or 2, 3 or 4 year old places from the LA? If so they cant exclude. Ask to talk to the Area Senco.

My grandchildren was suspended for this it did help break the cycle

If you're worried about speech its worth arrange for a hearing test (routine), nothing to worry about can be simple glue ear etc.

When looking for your private speech therapist try to find one with a bit of knowhow about sensory processing / sensory integration

My late dp's daughter used to bite, she was none verbal at 2.5, we found sign language helpful, we didn't follow any strict language but taught her little mimes to show what she wanted like rubbing her tummy if she was hungry, holding a cup if she was thirsty, fanning herself if she was hot, we used lots of animation & praise as well as using the words for her actions, we also found that she bit more when she was tired or frustrated, she didn't start biting until her mum took her dummy off her, has your little one stopped using a dummy recently?

@Smokeymirror

I can’t believe they suspended a 2 year old baby for biting!! Surely they need to manage this better? What if you are relying on the childcare for work? If the buying is due to delayed speech then they are discriminating her over something which isn’t her fault ..

Why should the OP's childcare needs trump children suffering the pain and distress of being bitten? I doubt you'd say the above if you were the one being bitten. Yet you think young kids should have to put up and suffer it. The crehebis not a parent and they've have clearly done what they can and the biting behaviour has not stopped. It's up to the child's own parent to sort out, as the OP is trying to do.

*The creche

When looking for your private speech therapist try to find one with a bit of knowhow about sensory processing / sensory integration

That's a really good tip Spring

My DS was a biter and also had speech delays. He also got suspended after biting another child on the face. Shortly after, he was diagnosed with glue ear and the audiologist said to us that hearing issues are often linked with behaviour issues. He couldn’t hear much and was doing it out of pure frustration. He had grommets put in and they made a huge difference. His speech improved very quickly and he was less frustrated. The biting stopped.

She sounds like my oldest. She was a biter from maybe 1.5-2.5 also with a speech delay.

Sometimes it happened with frustration, but sometimes it was just because she liked the feeling of biting I think. We tried giving her alternative things to bite down on, but honestly she just kind of grew out of it.

She didn't go to nursery though so we were her main targets - those little teeth are sharp!!

@MistyFrequencies

Can you get her chewelry? Not sure of the spelling but it's basically necklaces/ bracelets etc that are designed for chewing. If the biting is a sensory thing that may help? Then you could show her at home that she can chew them, might minimise the behaviour at creche? My first was a biter and this was suggested for her. We never actually bought it as she kind of magically just stopped about 3 years old, thank goodness.

Right spelling. I was going to suggest this. It could be sensory. My youngest went through a biting phase, but at home. He was seeking the sensory input, but it also got a lot worse anytime he was teething. Panadol helped with the later. The Mchat test could well be worth doing. Sensory seeking behaviours aren't only linked with Autism but there's a greater chance of having sensory behaviours if you child is Autistic.